


I Built My Life Around a Bright Idea

by magnass (PotofCoffee)



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-14
Updated: 2013-01-23
Packaged: 2017-11-18 15:21:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 22,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/562513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotofCoffee/pseuds/magnass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I woke up to a lightbulb; every little thing is possible. I woke up to a feeling; every little thing has meaning. Post S4. Helen/Nikola. Henry/Will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It’s an Ache I Still Remember

Nikola was perhaps less surprised by the reveal of her underground paradise than she might have hoped but he more than makes up for that now.

“A lab all of my own? Why Helen it’s almost as if you want to keep me around”. She shakes her head and smiles at his childlike enthrallment. He walks through the spacious room, trailing his fingers over the benches, inspecting each piece of equipment, and brushing away any flecks of dust or dirt besmirching his otherwise pristine lab. The thing about Nikola is that when he’s happy, he’s not just happy with a smile and a gleam in his eyes, he’s happy with his whole body and she can see that unbridled joy in him as he steps lightly through the room. She can almost see the experiments he’s thinking up written in the air in front of him and it’s more than worth all of the effort she put into this place to see his excitement at it all.

“So I take it it passes muster?” she calls out and he’s slightly surprised to find she’s still there.

“Well...” he spins about, one hand on his hip and the other raised to gesture disparagingly. “I guess it’ll do” he says, and that deprecating tone is all the more a compliment to her.

“Do you want to see your room, Nikola?” She expects any number of clever little innuendos in reply but he has already begun fiddling with one especially interesting machine and it’s a testament to the hold she has over him that she gets any reply at all, even if it is a mere absent-minded

“In a bit”.

She chuckles to herself and walks across the hall to see how Henry is faring.

“Henry?”

“Doc?” There’s a clash and an “ow!” and then Henry emerges from under one of the lab benches. “Sorry there were some ummm hardwiring ...issues.” She smiles indulgently as he scrambles with the electronics already strewn about his workspace. “Good news though! We should have a network similar to the old one up and running in a few days! I’m just taking the chance to rewrite a few sectors, polish up some of the code, you know?”

“Very good, Henry.”  
  
  
*****  
  
“Kate!”

“Magnus, hey.”

“I take it you’re settling in well?” Helen asks as she looks around the comfortable squalor in Kate’s room.

“Oh yeah for sure. I’ll uhhh I’ll be cleaning this up soon.”

“Uh huh.” Helen replies and Kate has worked for her long enough that she knows that is a virtual impossibility. “I’d just prefer it if nothing grew legs and walked out of here on its own, okay?” Kate nods and Helen realises that with the Big Guy gone they were going to have to figure out some sort of chore wheel around the place.

“The abnormals all seem well settled in,” Kate’s comment tears her away from her reminisces over the loss of a great friend.

“Yes, well. They’ve been here a tad longer than the rest of you.”

“Yeah of course. Are we still using the same feeding schedule.”

“Essentially, yes. Though you may wish to check in with Henry on that account. I believe we have some new residents with whom you have yet to be acquainted.”

“Okay. Cool.”

“You know, Kate. I’m a bit surprised that you’re here. And not out there, working on New Praxis.” Kate shrugs,

“It was time for me to come home, ya know?” And Helen knows that feelings all too well.

“And,” she pauses, unsure if she’s overstepping her boundaries. “Garris?” Kate sighs.

“That’s... Yeah that’s not gonna happen.” She grimaces. “It’s fine. Really. I’m good.” Helen wavers, unsure if she should press the issue but that’s really not her forte and she figures if Kate really has something to say she’ll say it.

“Good... Good.” She hesitates again, offers Kate a small smile and lets herself out.  
  
*****  
  
It mirrors four years previous almost perfectly. Hurt girlfriend, reticent Will. Only this time it’s him grabbing his stuff from her. And no one has run him over with their car. Yet.

“So you’re really doing this? Abandoning everything you have here to go join the remnants of the Sanctuary team who-knows-where and keep doing whatever it is you think you’re duty bound to do?” He barely keeps himself from asking the obvious question what do I have left up here. Because the answer is simple. Her. But he doesn’t even have that anymore and once more work has won out in the eternal struggle of work vs. love (stage side tickets now an all-time-low price of base humiliation and apathy). He snorts to himself at his own joke.

She sighs and he can hear the fight go out of her voice. “God Will, I just don’t understand it. I always knew you were devoted to Magnus but I never thought you would be quite fanatical enough to follow her ghost”. He shakes his head. He really wishes he could tell her but the days of Abby and Will Fight the Abnormals were fleeting at best and this is about so much more than just them.

“Look, Abby. I’m sorry, okay?” he tries to add to that but, well, there’s nothing left to say except, “take care of yourself.” He pecks her on the cheek and hefts his duffle bag of things over his shoulder. Note to self: breaking up with your girlfriend is about 16 times more awkward when you’ve been crashing at her place ever since your boss blew up your house; would not advise.

He walks, lost in his thoughts (not regrets, not now, not anymore) and is only shaken out of his reverie by the squelch of sewer underfoot. He walks down through the now-familiar passageway until he reaches that big door and when he steps through that doorway into the lush green surrounds of the New Sanctuary he takes a few deep breaths and feels everything slip away.  
  
*****  
  
Will walks into the Sanctuary. He passes Helen’s study and hear a snippet of conversation as he walks past.

“Hey you’re the one who gave me a lab Helen.”

“A lab, yes, not a carte-blanche to take over my Sanctuary, Nikola!”

“I did not ‘take it over’ I merely made a few, very sound, very reasonable changes to your security system.”

“Yes and in doing so managed to screw up the system of the high-security rooms.”

“Nothing got loose.”

“It was down for an hour! And you didn’t even bother to tell me.”

Will is curious, but not curious enough to get in the middle of that, so he moves past and up through the still-unfamiliar halls to the room he knows has been marked as his own.

Will walks into his room and drops his duffle on the ground at the foot of the bed. He’s halfway done going through his closet when he hears footsteps behind him. He turns to find his best friend looking slightly awkward as he stands at the entrance to Will’s room.

“Henry!” He walks forward to envelop the shorter man in a hug. God it’s good to breathe in that familiar scent again.

“Dude it’s been like two weeks. You’re acting like it’s been two years.” But despite his comments, Henry hugs him back just as hard. They break apart,

“I know. But it’s not like you gave me a heads-up as to where you were going or what you were doing or even if you were alive.” Henry nods,

“I know and I’m sorry but it was just everything happened so quickly. I mean BAM the Sanctuary blows up and Nikola’s looking all confused and tore up and then we’re trying to get our bearings when Magnus comes up out of nowhere wearing my Full Outer Shell Safety Shield System—it worked!—and she and Vlad do their whole voodoo we’ve-known-each-other-for-hundreds-of-years-and-can-communicate-without-words thing and suddenly they’re off to the sewers and dragging me with them and then kapow, we’re here. So I didn’t really have time to, you know, go find you and drag you along too.”

“Yeah what is up with those two?”

“Who? Oh, Magnus and the magnet?”

“Yeah.”

“Hell if I know. All I know is he has his own lab here and they switch between non-stop bickering and extreme science bros more quickly than hormonal teenagers.”

“Oh. Huh. You don’t think they...” Will trails off and defaults to some fairly explicit hand gestures to get his point across.

“Gross. Dude! She’s like my mom. I do not wanna think about it”

“Okay. Okay. I’m just saying...” Henry shudders and Will drops the subject. “So. How’s Erika?”

“She’s uhhh she’s good! I don’t know how much she loves being pregnant, hopefully this morning sickness stops soon, but she seems to be fine! Says Declan’s keeping a pretty close eye on her.”

“He’s a good guy”

“Yeah he is.”

Their conversation trails to a standstill and both stand there looking a bit awkward. Will’s scrambling, trying to think of something they can do, some activity that will allow them to hang out but will also preferably keep any discussion to a minimum.

“I uhhh, I downloaded the new Sherlock episodes?” Henry says hopefully. “Unless you already watched them?”

“No! I haven’t. That sounds...” Perfect his mind supplies. “Awesome! Dude that sounds... Awesome.”

“Cool. I dunno how much of this place the doc showed you but there’s a rec room on the ground floor with a sick 60-inch plasma.”

“Aww no way!” And Will smiles as Henry leads the way.  


*****  
  
It’s the next night and they are all there, Magnus, Tesla, Henry, Will, and Kate, silent and sorrowful as they mourn the loss of one of their best friends.

“I still can’t believe it” Henry says with a sigh. “I just... I can’t...” He trails off and the others nod their heads. The idea of never seeing Biggie again is so... unattainable. Any second now he should be coming around the corner, carrying a tea tray or a duster, and casually smacking them all upside the head.

The wake is silent, for the most part, even Nikola, who is rarely without a snarky comment, keeps his mouth shut. A few times someone speaks up to share a story.

“I can remember when I was really little, pretty soon after the Doc brought me home to the Sanctuary, I was afraid and worried and really confused.” Henry says. “But the Big Guy, he never made me talk, you know? He just would sit with me, bring me broken electronics to tinker with, that sort of thing. And sometimes, when I was really lucky, he’d let me ride on his shoulders as he cleaned or dusted.” And he grins in fond remembrance of those happy times.

“He was always willing to watch the crappiest tv with me. I mean, you wouldn’t have pegged him a Say Yes to the Dress guy, but if it aired on TLC he’d watch it. When everyone else was busy or away we’d take a few hours and put in a dvd of, oh god, the shittiest reality tv we could find. It was just our thing, you know? He’d be so embarrassed if I he knew I was telling you guys about it. We never talked about it.” Kate takes a steadying breath. “I don’t think I’ll be able to watch Paranormal Witness without him.”

“I remember right after I healed him. I expected him to go back to his people. I understood so very little about their culture then, I didn’t know I had doomed him to a life away from them. But I gave him sanctuary when he needed it and I expected nothing from him.” Helen smiles, her eyes glistening. “I can still recall, walking into my office and there he was. He had this stack of tea cups in his one hand and a duster in the other. I tried to tell him he didn’t need to do so. He just told me that obviously someone needed to. Here I was, thinking I was doing well at keeping my house tidy. But then this patient of mine, still in his hospital gown, was standing in the middle of my study telling me that it didn’t meet his standards. Even 50 years later he was still the same. Ever-loyal, of course, but always the first to tell me when something in the Sanctuary wasn’t up to his standards.”

They sit there together, throughout the night and mourn the loss of one of their best friends.

There’s no coffin, no urn of ashes, Biggie’s body was lost in the explosion.  
But in a small antechamber of the new sanctuary there sits a young woman’s powerful black motorcycle, a magnifying glass in homage to a brilliant mind, and the feather duster of a gentle giant.


	2. I Walk Upon the River Like it's Easier Than Land

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Erika's voice chimes out of the screen and Henry grins back.

"Happy Valentine's Day" he smiles back. "And Happy Valentine's Day to you too" he coos at the round bump of his girlfriend's stomach.

“How have you been?” She asks. “I haven’t seen much of you lately.”

“Yeah I know. Sorry about that. Figuring everything out for the New Sanctuary, feeding schedules, security systems, it’s been pretty crazy. Not to mention, I’ve had to keep it all incognito.”

“Of course. I assume you’ve isolated your network and encrypted everything?”

“Yeah of course. I even set up a proxy through a coffee shop in Old City so that when I have to delve into any networks topside it traces back there.”

“Oh that’s brilliant Henry!” He blushes.

“Thanks. But enough about work. Did you get the things I sent you?”

“I did, thank you. The flowers were lovely.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

“I’m afraid I didn’t have the chance to send anything off.”

“Oh. That’s fine. No worries.”

“But I do have a present for you.”

“Uhhh. You do?” Erika begins to unbutton her shirt, revealing a very nice black lace bra. “Oh. Oh. Ummm. I’m gonna go lock the door.”  
  
*****  
  
"Fix my computer"

"And a joyous feast of Saint Valentine's to you, my dear Helen"

"Fix my computer, Nikola"

"Ahhh but that would ruin my incredibly well thought-out plans for today.”

“Nikola” her tone is chiding but his grin only widens under her glare.

“C’mon Helen. Today is one of those days that should never be boring.”

“You know of all people I would think you least likely to celebrate this over-commercialised excuse for a holiday.” He shrugs,

“Yes, well, we all have our fallibilities. And plus, isn’t one of the big parts of this holiday wine?”

“Oh ho! So that’s the real reason you’ve come to pester me. You want the key to the wine cellar!”

“Pffffft! Helen if you think I need to ask you for the key to the wine cellar than you might want to assign someone with slightly keener eyesight than your dear protege to do your inventory.” She’s really not at all surprised that he’s found his own way in but she still feels as though she should be saying something. She settles for shaking her head disapprovingly and knows she’s likely accomplished nothing but further egging him on.

“So if you’re not going to fix my computer, what are your plans for today!”

“Ah Ha! For that, milady, you must follow me.” He leads her down through the maze of corridors and out into the plush green lands of her sanctuary.

“Where are you taking me, Nikola?”

“Follow and ye shall find, or something like that.”

She’s more than slightly shocked when he leads her through a crack in the cliff, leading behind the waterfall and around it, into a beautiful little cubby hewn out of the rock on the far side, from which you can see the waterfall and look out at her entire Sanctuary; she thought no one knew of this place but she.

“Nikola how did you find this?’

“I still swim every morning, you know. And it’s quite a nice stream to swim in, most of the time.”

“Most of the time?”

“Hmmm. Have a seat and I’ll tell you the story.” She looks at where he’s pointing and she’s even more surprised: blanket, basket of food, and bottle of wine. He’s being so incredibly thoughtful that she may even forgive him for filching one of her favourite comforters and laying it on the dirty ground. She makes herself comfortable on the blanket, slipping her heels off her feet, and Nikola hands her a glass of wine. Pouring one for himself, he begins. “I was, in the interests of maintaining my excellent physique” he winks at her and she laughs though, privately, she can’t quite help but agree with his judgement, “having my morning swim. I decided that the top stretch of stream would be the best place for such activities. I may have... underestimated the force of the waterfall’s pull.”

“Oh Nikola! You didn’t!” They laugh as he continues

“Oh I did! Not that it did much damage—vampire remember?”

“How could I forget?”

“Yes, well, after I had gotten out of the water and caught my breath I looked up and voila! Here I was, looking up at this idyllic little spot.”

“It is quite lovely, isn’t it?”

“Oh don’t look so smug.”

“Smug?”

“Smug. You are entirely too pleased with yourself for this whole place.”

“Hello pot? This is the kettle calling.”

“You orchestrated the building of an underground city and then blew up your house, I changed the entire history of the world and re-engineered science as we know it.”

“You got yourself robbed blind by everyone you came in contact with and practically handed your work over to Edison.”

“Oh please Helen, must you bring him up?”

“Your choice Nikola, it’s either our beautiful new home or one Thomas A. Edison.”

“How about neither. You are looking especially lovely today, Helen.” He takes his time looking at her and she can’t help but appreciate the way his eyes caress her body. She’s dressed for what she thought would be a day of work, tight black pencil skirt and off-white blouse paired with a black cardigan and classic black pumps.

“I’m sure. As are you, Nikola.” And in a dark grey linen suit with a pale grey shirt and blood red cravat he truly is.

“Really?” He’s a little bit shocked but immediately he’s turned to her, invading her personal space with a salacious glint in his eye.

“Not that good.” He sighs, but retreats.

“It is an auspicious day, Helen. What better way to celebrate?”

“I’m sure our combined intellect can come up with something.”

“We could go swimming?”

“I’m afraid that with the alacrity with which you ushered me from the house I didn’t quite have time to grab my bathing suit.”

“Exactly.” She shoves at his shoulder to reprimand him and he laughs.

“Well at the very least we have good food and fine wine.” She turns to asses their collection of such items. Opening the basket she finds some surprisingly edible-looking food, a bag of blood, and a plethora of wine bottles.

“A veritable feast!” She proclaims and he inclines his head.

“Yes well if the food tastes bad, blame Huggy Bear. He’s the one who made it.” And the fact that he stole the wine from her and the food from Will somehow makes the entire idea more palatable, more Nikola. She refills her wine glass with a smile.

“Do you remember that fabulous little restaurant in Vienna?”

“How could I forget?”  
  
******  
  
“Hey” Will plops down on the couch beside Kate. She’s lounging watching some action flick. “You seen Magnus today?”

“I saw her and the walking ego going outside this morning. She not back yet?”

“Not that I can see.”

“Huh. You know I’d never pegged her as the type.”

“What type?”

“Dirty outdoor sex. I mean, I guess when you’re a bajillion years old you gotta keep it interesting somehow.”

“Oh c’mon you don’t honestly think...?” She gives him a look. “With Tesla?” Kate shrugs.

“I dunno. But a girl’s got needs.”

“Let’s never talk about Magnus’... _Needs_ ever again. Please!”

“Okay, okay! I was just saying...”

“What movie are you watching?” Will asks, his mind scrambling for some way to change the conversation.

“This? Oh it’s some crap action flick. _Knowing_. I dunno, it was on the drive.”

“C’mon! It’s Valentine’s Day. Henry’s upstairs talking to Erika—don’t! Say anything—and Magnus isn’t around. Wanna make fun of a romcom?”

“You know, Will, if you wanna watch a chick flick, you can just say so.”

“I don’t! It’s just funny when they’re really bad!”

“No no! I get it! You’re a big sensitive man.” She gives him a vapid smile and passes him the remote. “Choose away, Huggy Bear.”

“How do you even—. Nope. I’m not gonna ask. And for the record, at least Atonement doesn’t star Nicolas Cage.” She snorts but makes herself comfortable on her end of the couch as they settle in to watch.  
  
2 hours later both Kate and Will are sobbing openly on the couch. As the credits roll their eyes meet.

“We are never mentioning this again.” She says, her voice still a little unsteady.

“Agreed.” He replies, and both retreat to their rooms to regain some composure.


	3. When All the Parts Equal More Than the Sum

“Nephrocanth, so it’s kind of like a... highly evolved lobster?” Will asks.

“Yes. I guess you could put it that way” Helen agrees. “though I certainly wouldn’t, especially not to it’s face.”

“Of course. Of course. And this Nephrocanth is found in Romania?”

“That’s right! I’ve been in contact with some people there. We’ll be flying into Bucharest and then taking a private plane up to Orșova.”

She leads the way out of the Sanctuary, stopping to say goodbye to Henry and ensure that he has everything under control.

“We should be back in a couple of days” she tells him. “Try not to let Nikola burn my house down while I’m away.”

“Oh so you’re the only one who’s allowed to do that?” Nikola asks from the doorway.

“Cheeky!” She replies and with that she’s hustling Will out the door.  
  
******  
  
With the time difference, they arrive in Bucharest at 4 in the afternoon and are greeted in the airport by a young man holding a sign that reads ‘Magnus’.

“Mr. and Mrs. Magnus?” He asks with a thick, almost unintelligible accent, and Helen’s in far too much of a rush to correct him.

“Yes. Sure. you are Andrew?”

“Da. I am to lead you to your plane?” She nods and smiles and strides off after him, Will following behind, the small pack carrying their combined belongings on his back.  
  
*****  
  
They land in Orșova and quickly find a dingy small hotel at which to stay for the night.

“It’s already getting dark” she says to Will. “I suppose we haven’t much choice but to sleep now and wait until morning?”

“Sounds reasonable.”  
  
The next morning they make contact with Magnus’ contact in Romania, a young woman named Mara whose English is almost perfect.

“I’m afraid you may have missed him” She tells them. “My reports say that the Nephrocanth left for Gura Vaii early this morning.”

“Oh bloody hell!” Magnus exclaims and Will can’t help but privately agree.

“Your best bet is probably to hire a boat to take you there, it will be considerably quicker than driving. I can direct you to the harbour but then I must get going, Romania is still not the safest of countries and in my line of work, the less you are noticed the better.”

“Do we stick out?” Will can’t help but ask, and the girl laughs. “She” she points at Magnus, “she blends in okay. You? You stick out like a turd in a punchbowl.” Will winces and Mara continues, sketching a quick map showing the direction to the harbour. “Now I really must be off.” She says.

“Yes of course.” Magnus replies, shaking her hand, “Thank you so much.” And Will is positive that he saw just the briefest flashes of a wad of American bills.  
They return to their hotel, settle the bill, and collect their things before following Mara’s rough, yet surprisingly accurate, map. Once there, Will hangs back as Magnus goes amongst the vendors and fishermen in search of a boat.

“Multu mesc” She says with a smile and walks to join Will. “I found us a boat!” she tells him with a grin.

“One that will actually get us to Gura Vaii?” The boats he sees around them aren’t exactly a paradigm of modern technology and safety regulations.

“Oh yes, it looked more than adequate.”

“You can drive a boat?” He asks skeptically, “you’re sure?”

“Of course I can, Will. C’mon it’ll be fun.” He squares his shoulders and sighs.

“Well, at least it’s not a helicopter.”  
  
*****  
  
“Shake it out! Shake it out. Oooooh. It’s hard to dance. With the devil on your back. So shake him o-o-offff” Henry sings to himself.

“Could you not?” A voice calls from the doorway.

“Huh?” Henry looks up to see Tesla lounging in his doorway. “Oh, sorry. It’s stuck in my head.”

“Well keep it there.” Henry glares at the infuriating vampire who merely moves into the lab and begins picking at unfinished experiments.

“Hey! Do ya mind?” Tesla ignores him and continues to peruse Henry’s lab. A few minutes later he finally speaks.

“Have you heard from Helen or Dr. Incompetent yet?” Ohhhh, Henry realises. So that was it.

“Yeah. They got into Orsova safe and sound. But they haven’t seen any hint of the abnormal yet. Hoping to make contact with someone who knows more tomorrow.” Nikola nods absent mindedly, his concentration apparently centered on the device in front of him.

“Heinrich,” he says as he spins to face the younger man, “what do you get when you use electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds?”

“Well it’s the basic model of a particle accelerator.” Henry stops in his tracks. “Wait. You mean...With your... I mean. Do you think we should?”

“Not in the slightest.” Henry deflates a bit at that. “But Helen and the protege are on the other side of the world and, how should I put this? The world is our oyster.” Henry grins at Tesla and he has to admit the guy’s growing on him.  
  
*****  
  
Will gasps as the cold water hits his body. Shit, shit, shit. He should have known getting this close to water with Magnus was an incredibly bad idea.

“Magnus!” He calls out into the water

“Will?” He can see her now, a dark bouncing ball and he swims to meet her. Together they swim ashore. “Are you alright?”

“I’ve still got all my limbs, if that’s what you mean. You?” She nods. “All of our supplies, however, went down with the boat.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah.”

“And I don’t suppose you know where we are?”

“Surprisingly enough, I’m not very well acquainted with the Romanian countryside.”

“Well I say we start walking, it’s likely our best bet.”

“Any clue as to which direction?” He looks around them and really all he can see is woods and water. And by this point, he’d really love to get away from the water.”

“That way?” She points and he shrugs.

“Good enough for me.”

******  
  
“That was a really bad idea.” Henry says with a shaky voice and Nikola thinks he’s really far too smart to spout such obvious statements.

“How long did you say Helen would be gone for?”

“A few days. Definitely not long enough to rebuild the entire sanctuary from the ground up.”

“Oh don’t be ridiculous.” Nikola’s trying desperately to remain calm. “Whatever harm we may or may not have inflicted is not nearly that widespread.”

“The entire building shook! Parts of the ceiling are now on the floor.”

“Okay, I’ll grant to you that over-looking the amount of stabilization needed for a particle accelerator powered by my extensive electromagnetic power may have been a poor idea. But c’mon! We just built a small scale version of the LHC. If that’s not ‘awesome’ I don’t know what is.”

“We did, didn’t we?” Henry grins wide and Nikola can’t help but feel a tinge of... pride?

“Oh yes. Now let’s figure out how to fix this place up before your Doc returns.”  
  
*******  
  
“Well if we can find someone to help us we’ll be alright.”

“What if they don’t speak English?”

“I can speak Romanian, Will.”

“Magnus you can say ‘thank you’, ‘I understand’, and ‘take off your pants’. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to help us very much.” she chooses to ignore this and they walk along, scraping their arms on the underbrush in a less than companionable silence.

They choose a point to stop for a night, a few trees clumped close together make for some cover against the bracing cold air that digs through their wet clothing and chills them to the bone.

When they’ve settled in Helen turns to Will and addresses that which has been bugging her for the past 3 months.

“I don’t understand why you’re still angry at me Will.”

“You don’t understand? You lie to me constantly, after expressly promising you won’t. And then you act as if you’ve done nothing wrong. My life is in shambles, Magnus. I guess I can see some of your reasoning now but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.”

“And so it’s easier to blame me then is it? Things haven’t turned out the way you expected them to and I get to be the scapegoat for the fact that you haven’t had an easy life.” Will shrugs and looks at her.

“Kinda. Yeah. You can’t pretend you’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I’m not-”

“Yeah,” he breaks in. “Yeah you kind of are. I’m not like you, or, or Tesla or... I dunno, Druitt? Heh. Maybe it’s a 19th century thing. But I’m not like you guys. I can’t just forget and move on. I can’t pretend that nothing happened because I wish nothing had happened. You lied to me, Magnus. You told me you wouldn’t and then you did.”

“More than once” she murmurs and her voice holds a rare tinge of remorse.

“Yeah. More than once. And then the thing with Abby... It was almost like the straw that broke the camel’s back, you know?” She nods. And he drops his head a bit because she’s being so good about all of this.

“I am sorry though. For those things I said in the caves.” He pauses. “Ashley. And, and everything. I’m sorry.” She makes a noise and motions it away with her hand to say that it’s really all nothing but Will objects. “No, Magnus. It’s not nothing.” He meets her eyes and repeats, “I’m sorry”. She holds his gaze,

“I forgive you” she replies, and the words sound strange on her lips, but hearing them feels oh so right. He smiles and she follows suit and then he can’t quite keep himself from letting out a small laugh. “Better?” She asks.

“Oh yeah.” He replies.

“If only we could’ve done this months ago” she says with a cheeky grin.

“Ahhh, but what better place to do it, lass, than in these fair foreign lands.” And Helen is unreasonably happy to hear that disgusting mockery of an accent.  
The wind picks up and she’s shivering a bit and she lets him pull her close and put an arm around her, his body heat warming her up.

“You know, in the interests of full disclosure, I never did tell you what happened in Honduras, did I?”  
  
*****  
  
They wake up to a fine drizzle the next morning. They walk all day and all the day after and they resign themselves to never being dry again. They pass through seemingly endless identical copses of trees. Helen shivers and wraps her damp clothes closer around her body. The only improvement is that now the silence between them is light, their worries are about finding food and shelter, not about petty bickering over old wounds. They drink from streams and she scavenges for berries and nuts that they might eat. She would consider shooting an animal to eat but it’s early spring and those that are out of hibernation are either too young or are the parents of the very young.

“Why does this always happen to us?”

“Sorry?” She’s busy scanning their surroundings for any hint of a trail and she doesn’t quite know what he’s talking about.

“You, me, getting wet and ending up in a life-threatening situation?” She laughs

“It does seem to happen fairly often, doesn’t it?”

“Too often.”

“No objection from me there.” She blows on her hands and rubs them together. “I don’t however remember the other times being that cold.”

“Yeah, let’s try to stick to somewhere tropical next time, okay?”

“Next time?” She’s trying to just joke around about the idea of them planning out these little perilous jaunts but it hits home that there may not be a next time; there may not be any next times. They could die of exposure out here in the woods of Romania and no one would be the wiser. Kate, Henry, Nikola. And her mind catches, Nikola. The idea of never chiding him for stealing her wine ever again makes her pause far too long and she shakes it off. She needs to focus. Focus on getting her and Will out here alive and then she can have all the time in the world to chide Nikola.

“Magnus?” It doesn’t sound like the first time he’s called her name,

“What? Sorry. I was... thinking.”

“Well don’t. We’re gonna get out of here. We’re gonna be fine.” She smiles wanly at him because, honestly, the likelihood of that happening is ridiculously slim. But she’s glad enough that Will has forgiven her enough to be actively egging her on, cheering her up.

“Of course we are, Will. We’ve gotten out of worse situations before.” And that reassurance may be more for her own sake than Will’s but they both hold onto that hope as they stumble through the ever-darkening wood.  
  
  
****  
  
The next day they hit gold, so to speak.

“Will!” she gasps, and reaches out to clutch his arm and get his attention.

“Huh?” She points out in the distance.

“That’s a trail!”

They run up to the dark brown line of broken trail and Helen thinks she may just cry with relief. It’s definitely a hiking trail and they follow it in a hopeful trance, ever waiting to see a settlement across the next stream or up the next hill.

Finally, finally they see a small cluster of what could be buildings in the distance and Helen thinks she may faint from joy, or maybe that’s the hunger and exhaustion. They stagger on, as they near they can see that it is in fact a village, though hamlet may be a better description of the tiny Romanian town. The small buildings look to be rustic but functional. They stumble into the town and they are noticed immediately. The people of the town give them strange looks, many shying away from them, and Helen can’t blame them as she imagines how she and Will must look. Finally one woman comes up to them and begins speaking in Romanian.

“I- I don’t.” Helen starts, and then rethinks it. “Eu Romana vorbesc nu.” The woman nods vigorously and tilts her head to the side. She mimes out actions of eating and Helen and Will both nod their heads vigorously. The woman is tall and buxom. She looks to be about 40 and Will decides that she looks like a Matilda. Matilda leads them back to a house not far from the center of town, though none of them are really. Pausing outside she motions to a tap on the wall and Helen and Will both wipe their hands and faces. Will can’t quite believe just how much dirt comes off of him. Following Matilda into the house, they are seated at a sturdy wooden kitchen table.She puts bowls of a simple stew type dish and a large block of yellow something that Will can’t even begin to explain in front of them. Taking a few sips of the stew he finds it to be both delicious and hearty and he decides to try his luck with the yellow thing. He breaks off a piece and takes a bite and is surprised at what he tastes. From the taste and texture he can tell it’s made from cornmeal and while it doesn’t really replace bread to his mind, Will can see the appeal. He tries dipping it in his stew and is overwhelmed with the delicious taste of the meal.

“Slowly.” Helen warns from across the table.

“Huh?”

“Don’t eat too quickly Will. Or too much. You don’t want to make yourself sick.” He forces himself to slow down and when Matilda comes back in the room he gives her a big smile.

“Multu mesc” he says in his best attempt at Romanian and it seems Matilda understands him because she smiles warmly in return. When she seems satisfied with what they’ve eaten, Matilda bids them to follow her once more. She takes them down to a house a bit further from the rest and knocks on the door. The man who comes to the door is old and decrepit and Will decides to call him Rutger. He looks like a Rutger. Matilda and Rutger begin arguing almost immediately. Or at least, it sure looks like arguing to him. They’re yelling and moving their arms in expressive, sweeping gestures and Will and Helen stand at the sidelines watching them. Eventually they seem to come to some sort of compromise. Matilda gestures to them and then points to Rutger and Will assumes this means that they’re in his care now. They nod and thank her once more and then turn to the man. He walks out of his house around to the back, gesturing them to follow, and moves towards a building that they soon discover is a garage. Inside is the most ancient and feeble looking volvo Will has ever seen.  
  
******

Henry stands staring at the large piece of wood in the hallway, trying desperately to figure out how to return this beam back to its proper place in the ceiling without the Doc noticing.

“Oh you are so screwed.” He looks up and Kate is standing in front of him.

“Yeah. Yeah I know. Any thoughts as how we could, ummmm, put this all back together?”

“It’s not exactly a lego set, Hank. If you think you can rebuild this place in the, oh, 26-ish hours that it’s gonna take Will and the Doc to get back then be my guest.

“You heard from them?”

“Yup. Apparently they got waylaid in their travels. But they're back in civilization and will be home soon."

"Shit."

"Yeah." She pats him on the shoulder as she walks away. "Have fun!"  
  
******  
  
“Have you rethought your opinion on my piloting abilities yet?” Magnus asks him and Will would really love to give her a snarky reply but he’s too busy attempting not to puke.

“Fine. You’re better than Rutger.”

“Who the hell is Rutger?” Will shrugs

“Ummm the old guy?”

“His name is Georghe,” she laughs. “Will did you not listen to any of the conversation on the drive?”

“Hey! I was a little busy trying not to die.”

“Fine. Well I’ve made contact with Kate and booked a trip schedule back. A private cargo bus to Bucharest and then a flight home from there.”

“And the Nephrocanth?”

“I have a lead!”  
  
*****  
  
When they finally arrive back at the Sanctuary Helen is utterly exhausted and wants nothing more than to have a warm shower and collapse into bed. She walks through the doorway of her home and stops in her tracks. Will, walking behind her runs into her back.

“Magnus?” He asks but she is speechless. She moves aside so he can see.

Inside the main hall of her Sanctuary the floor is littered with fine white dust, and in places actual pieces of the ceiling are lying on her pristine tiles. Helen sighs and then squares her shoulders.

“Nikola!”


	4. Hardest Paradox I Ever Learned

The room is dark but not dank. It’s a new wine cellar full of old wines and his heightened sense can pick up a myriad of scents, ranging from the brand new wood of the shelves, to the corks of the oldest bottles. He loves to lose himself in here, walking through the rows upon rows of wine bottle. There is so much Nikola loves about wine that has so very little to do with actually drinking the wine. He enjoys that too, of course, but there is something to be said entirely for the selection process. The joy of picking through wine bottle like hefty tomes in a spacious library. He moves to the furthest reaches of the room and, crouching down, begins at the farthest, darkest corner, picking up each bottle in turn, he reads the label and the description before he returns it with care. It’s one of his favourite places to think, here in the wine cellar—any wine cellar, really—but especially one as carefully organised and cultivated as that of Helen Magnus. He takes some pride in knowing that when she built this room she undoubtedly had him in mind, at least a little bit. He may look to anyone else as though he’s merely choosing his next drink, and yes some infinitesimally small section of his brain is working on that, but the majority of his mind is focused on other things. The calming and regular motions: pick up wine, read label, carefully replace wine, allows his mind to consider his current experiments with a sort of peacefulness he cannot achieve unless his hands are somehow occupied. He pauses for a second on a particularly interesting wine—a 47 Chateau Pétrus—and that one he places to the side.

“Ahh Helen. you’ve been holding out on me” he murmurs to himself. And then he brings himself back to his original task. There is an incredible number of bottles in this room, any lesser mind might even say an infinite number, and it will take him weeks, maybe even years to get through each of these bottles. But that is one of the many things that makes this Sanctuary oh so perfect. He may appreciate his lab, and his room is certainly pleasant enough, but this wine cellar is what allows him to truly consider this place ‘home’.

He is still perusing carefully when he hears footsteps behind him. The click of heels on tile can only be Helen and he is so sure that he doesn’t even bother turning around.

“Stealing all my wine again, are you?” He doesn’t even bother answering that, instead he gets up and moves to the shelf where he had placed the bottle of Pétrus from earlier. Holding it up so she can see it he replies

“Holding out on me again, are you?”

“Maybe I was trying to ensure that I would have the chance to enjoy some of it myself, before it was guzzled down by my resident vampire.”

“I’ll share.” He says with a smile.

“Oh, well then, by all means.” She motions him to lead the way out of the room, shutting off the lights and closing the door behind them, though she neglects to take his proffered arm.

He leads the way to his lab and then allows her to go ahead, gratuitously checking out her ass as she walks inside. She lifts herself up onto one of the lab benches set against the east wall and he pauses to retrieve glasses before following suit.

“Oh that really is wonderful” he exclaims as he takes a sip and she murmurs her agreement. The wine is rich and full bodied, with a hints of tobacco on the bouquet and a never-ending, explosive finish.

“Exquisite.” She says. “You know, I had planned to keep this one for your birthday.”

“Why Helen, I’m honoured.”

“Don’t be. At the rate you go through my wine, all I’ll have left by July is half a bottle of a 2005 Canadian Riesling.” He gasps,

“Oh Helen, you wouldn’t!” She laughs.

“Are you sure?”  
  
*******  
  
"You know, smoking on the roof is slightly less effective when you're in an enclosed underground space." Kate winces and turns around to see her boss standing behind her.

"Shit. Uhhh. Doc. Hi."

"Okay, c'mon, hand it over." Magnus says and Kate reluctantly hands her the joint. She's shocked, however, because instead of incinerating the thing on the spot and firing her, Magnus sits beside her and takes a deep drag. And that woman knows how to smoke a joint. Magnus arches her eyebrow at Kate as though she's daring her to say something so Kate just gives her best attempt at a smile and hands her the lighter as well. "Please tell me you're not growing this on the premises."

"Oh god no! I picked some up the last time I was up in Old City." Kate's brain is furiously trying to play catch-up with the fact that her boss, prim and proper Helen Magnus is sitting on the edge of the roof with her smoking a joint.

"Good. I think Will would have a conniption if he found it."

They sit in silence for a few minutes, passing the joint back and forth and finally Kate mentions the scent that is not quite being masked by the cloud of weed.

"Have you been drinking?" Magnus laughs

"I found Nikola filching some of my best wine. It was either drink with him or not drink it at all." Kate, for some reason, finds this hilarious. When she finally catches her breath she replies,

"Why the hell do you put up with the guy?"

"Who? Oh. Nikola?" Kate nods. "He's... Nikola. He's one of my best friends. And really his faults, when you consider them, are irrelevant when you've been friends for as long as he and I." Damn the weed is making her brave, but Kate can't stop her mouth from moving.

" _Right_. I'm sure that's all it is." Magnus tried to glare at her but fails miserably and ends up just shrugging.

"He's Nikola. And to be fair he wasn't always like this. There was a time when he was heartbreakingly naïve."

"Really?"

"How do you think Edison managed to dupe him so thoroughly?"

“Good point.” Kate breathes deeply and stretches. “And at least he’s nice to look at.”

“Hmmm.” Is Magnus’ only comment on that matter before she moves on. Leaning back she points to the roof of the cave. "Look! That rock there looks like a steno"

“Oh god it does!”


	5. I Remember the First Time (We Wished Upon Parallel Lines)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On July 4th, scientists at the LHC observed a new boson that is consistent with the theory of the Higgs boson. I like to think that Nikola would have gotten there first :)

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Dude! C’mon! It’s The Avengers. There is no way in hell I’m missing the midnight premiere.”

“Yeah. Okay. But what if Magnus finds out? We’re supposed to be keeping a low profile topside, remember?”

“Ah ha! Way ahead of you there!”

“Oh god, please don’t tell me you have—”

“Costumes!” Henry exclaims, pulling some brightly coloured lycra out of his shoulder bag. He hands one to Will with a smile.

“Uhhh. Really, dude?”

“I’m Iron Man. You’re Captain America.”

“Wait wouldn’t you be the Hulk? You know, nice-guy scientist gets angry and turns into giant rage monster?”

“Dude, we’re just dressing up. I mean, yeah I’d probably be Bruce Banner but who doesn’t want to be Iron Man.” Will shrugs, it’s a fair point. They clamber**up through the back entrance, shimmying through rusted abandoned drain pipes and out into a run down area of Old City. They dart into a nearby shwarma shop to change their clothes and then catch a cab to the movie theatre. It’s bustling with people and Will feels slightly less of a douche when he sees how many other people are also in costume. A few teenage girls laugh and ask to take photos with them, though Will is incredibly confused with the amount that they talk about a ‘ship’. They go up to the counter.

“Dude, are you sure we’re gonna be able to get tickets.” Will asks.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ve had tickets on hold since the day they went on sale.” And Will sighs. Of course he did.  
  
******  
  
  
“That. Was. Awesome.” Henry exclaimed walking out of the theatre.

“Dude. Seriously.”

“Awww man. Joss Whedon is a boss. Like I was expecting good but that was SO good.”

“Totally. I was a bit bummed about Coulson though, I really liked him and then he d-”

“Nope.”

“Huh?”

“He’s not dead.”

“Ummm, I’m pretty sure that he is.”

“Did you see a body?”

“No. But I saw bloody trading cards.”

“Not dead.”

“Seriously? Of course he’s dead. Fury as much as said so!”

“Not dead.”

“You’re actually going to pretend that he didn’t die just because you didn’t want him to?”

“Yup.”

“Sheesh.” At Henry’s menacing glare, Will gives in, raising his arms in surrender. “Okay, okay! Not dead!”

“I’m glad we’re in agreement.” They walk along and then Will bumpb Henry’s shoulder lightly with his own.

“In all seriousness, thanks for dragging me along.”

“No worries. Thanks for coming.” Henry takes a deep breath. “The Big Guy would usually come to these things with me, so thanks. Thanks for keeping me from going alone.” Will smiles,

“Any time man. It was actually fun! When does the next Marvel movie come out?”

“Iron Man 3 comes out next year.”

“Okay then. It’s a date.” Will blushes at his wording but Henry doesn't say anything so he just coughs and keeps walking.  
  
*********

“Come on Helen. You have got to see this!” She’s got her heels in her hands and has yet to have had a chance to put them on because Nikola burst into her room at 6 in the morning and declared that he had reached enlightenment. Okay, maybe not those exact words. But close enough. And so he’s got her free hand in his and he’s pulling her along behind him down, she guesses, to his lab. She can see that his hair is still wet, from his morning swim she assumes, and as he strides in front of her she lets her eyes wander over his lithe form.

Once they reach Nikola’s lab, he pulls her over to the center bench and she stares at the contraption on it.

“Nikola?”

“Hmmm?”

“Is that what I think it is?”

“What?”

“The particle accelerator that I expressly told you to dismantle?”

“Yes, yes. But look!” She looks at the computer he has set up with the accelerator.

“Nikola?”

“Yes?”

“Is that what I think it is?”

“What do you think it is?” He asks, moving closer to stand pressed against her, and look over her shoulder at the screen. It takes Helen a great deal of self restraint to keep herself from melting back into him.

“Nikola, that’s the Higgs boson!”

“Well...”

“That’s a boson that’s consistent with the Higgs boson! Nikola this is huge!” He hums happily and she can feel the sound run through her.

“Actually it’s incredibly small.”

“You know what I mean!”

“I do.” He says, and if this weren’t so impressive she would disparage at that smug tone. He pushes himself away and grabs a glass of wine from the counter, sipping from it as he walks through the lab. “Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.”

“I don’t think it’s ever considered flattering for someone to quote themselves.”

“It is a bit on the pompous side, is it not? People really do seem to love it though, I am an inspiration” She snorts and he preens and then she moves forward to brush an errant piece of lint from his shoulder. He turns his face to her and she stops in her tracks when she notices that they are almost nose to nose, their mouths mere inches apart. All she can think of is that damn day, 3 months ago. Standing in the lab of the Old City Sanctuary and kissing him swiftly before urging him to go. She was so afraid she wouldn’t make it out of there, so worried because time was never meant to be an issue with them, she was supposed to have all the time in the world to flirt and tease and eventually get around to telling Nikola that maybe just maybe he had won and she did feel something for him and then it all boiled down to 3.2 seconds and a quick kiss and now that she didn’t die she can’t help but wonder what it would be like to kiss him slowly. To take her time. To dig her fingers into the nape of his neck and pull him to her... But he’s the last of the five, her best friend in the world, and for all his flirting Nikola could still be celibate for all she knows. So instead of leaning forward and pressing her lips against his she moves back and peers intently once more at his experiments.

“This is really quite impressive, Nikola” He comes up beside her and acts as though nothing just happened and she is secure in the knowledge that that’s how it should be.  
  
********

“Okay you can have one method of transportation from any science fiction show”

“TARDIS” Henry answers immediately.

“Stargate!” Kate replies and Henry turns to her in shock

“Really? Admittedly-awesome spinning wheel that can dial other worlds over a phone box that can go anywhere and anytime in the universe?”

“You make a good point, but if my stargate breaks down I get to call Sam Carter for help. And Sam Carter is hot” Will scrunches up his nose at that statement as Henry makes retching sounds. “What? She is! That entire team is smokin’’!”

“Yeah. But... She kinda looks like Magnus.” Will explains.

“And so? Magnus is hot”

“Eugh. Dude! She’s essentially my mom!” Henry objects. “Would you go around telling some guy his mom is hot?”

“If his mom looked like Helen Magnus? Fuck yeah I would!”

“This round defaults to Henry” Will declares, ignoring Kate’s cries of ‘not fair!’ as he pushes the bottle of whiskey to her.

“I definitely don’t think this game is being scored fairly at all” she declares after downing her appointed shot. “I vote we switch to something without the chance of such blatant favouritism”

“What did you have in mind?” Henry asks, a little bit worried. Drunk Kate’s ideas are a lot like Sober Kate’s ideas only riskier (which is really a nice way of saying stupider)/

“King of all drinking games: never have I ever.” The guys groan but Kate is persistent. “Oh c’mon! You two have done way less shit than I have. It’ll be an easy win!” They acquiesce and Kate smiles. “Okay, Will, you start.”

“Ummm. Never have I ever. Ummm. Sky dived. Sure.” Kate grins and takes a shot.

“Never have I ever received a blowjob” Kate says proudly and Henry and Will both slam back a shot each.

“Never have I ever given a blowjob” Henry returns smugly. His eyes widen as Will coughs and joins Kate in a shot.

“College” he explains with a shrug, and then continues with his turn. “Never have I ever....”


	6. I Can't Stop These Feelings Melting Through

She passes by the door to the wine cellar and can hear a familiar voice singing to himself within.

"I was in love with a bird in 1943..." She smiles. She’s not surprised at all, at this point she thinks Nikola may well spend more time in the cellar than he does in his room. She really should just walk past, find what she's been looking for and keep going but she can't help herself from ducking inside, if but for a second. And there he is, dapper as ever in a vest and slacks. His sleeves however are uncharacteristically rolled up and she can't help but linger on his exposed forearms as her eyes take him in. His hair is mussed as though he's been constantly running his hands through it and she wonders what new project has him so distressed.

"Stealing my wine again? And here I had hoped you were a changed man"

"Stealing? I liked to think of it more as sharing. And sharing is caring after all". He walks over to her with a grin and she laughs. "As the protagonist on Will's favourite show likes to say 'caring is not an advantage’.” They are toe to toe and suddenly she can't help herself. Grabbing him by his ever-immaculate vest, she pushes him up against the nearest row of bottles and kisses him soundly. Nikola gasps in reply and she takes the opportunity to slip her tongue into his mouth. He recovers quickly, replies eagerly. Their tongues begin a battle for dominance and she's lost in the heady smell of _him_ and the feel of his tongue and lips exploring her deeply. His hands curl about her waist, hers tug at the short hairs at the back of his neck. It’s been six months since she kissed him last and as delightful as that was it has nothing on this. _God this is stupid_ she thinks and the thought wakes her up. Nikola is her best friend, the last of the five, and losing him because of what? Her _vagina_? Would just be ridiculous. With some considerable effort, she backs off.

"Try not to drink all my wine" she spits at him, more forcibly than intended, and strides off.  
  
******  
  
"Hey!" Will walks into Henry's lab.

"Sup dude?" Henry replies absent-mindedly, wincing as Will begins fiddling with a particularly delicate piece of wiring.

"Oh. You know. Abnormals, governments... The usual" Henry can tell there's something on Will's mind so he turns back to his computer, waiting for him to get to the point. "It's just..." _There it is._

"What?"

"Have you seen Nikola recently?"

"Resident Rockstar Scientist? Thankfully not. He's been holed up in his lab for like 2 weeks. I figured he's busy working on some new way to take over the world. Why?"

"Magnus has been acting strangely." At that Henry pays more attention.

"How so?"

"She's being working a lot." Henry opens his mouth to comment on how that really isn't very remarkable at all but Will is already continuing, "No not a normal a lot, not even for her. We're talking a lot a lot. She's started spell-checking my mission reports for god's sake!"

"Well..."

"By hand"

"Huh."

"Yeah. And I was doing inventory today and there's the same amount of wine as the last time I did it. Two weeks ago."

"Wait Vlad's working sober?" Will shrugs.

"Apparently."

"I didn't know that was possible."

"I know!"

"So... As fascinating as this all is. Why do I care?"

"Well okay I brought it up with Kate. And she brought up the idea of..." Henry tilts his head and Will takes a deep breath and continues quietly "lover's quarrel?"

"Ewwww".

"I know. I know. But somebody needs to do something."

"Not me!"

"Well Tesla"s certainly not going to talk to me about this!"

"Okay. Since when is it even our problem? They've been friends for over a hundred years, I'm sure they're able to deal with it on their own." Will snorts and Henry can see his point. But still. "Nope. No way. We are not doing this." Will pouts a little at that but Henry is not going to get involved. "How about instead of gossiping like old women, you and Kate help me with the midday feedings?"

"I-"

"Nuh uh, no excuses. This is how you can pay me back for even making me think about this." Henry shudders as he moves out of the lab, Will following closely at his heels.  
  
****  
  
One week later, Magnus' temper has been steadily declining, Nikola has still not emerged from his lab, and the smell emanating into the hallway is quite frankly unsavoury.  
Kate, Will, and Henry are taking refuge from the Doc's temper and Nikola's unwillingness to bathe by offering to oversee a few baby Frengles frolicking by the river.

"We really need to do something."

"Helpful, Kate, thanks."

"Wow, sarcastic much? I thought I would start the convo somewhere, Will."

"Sorry". He sighs. "I just haven't been getting a lot of sleep. Magnus has been dragging me on missions practically 24/7."

"I've been hiding in my lab" Henry commiserates. "At least Nikola's stench doesn't yell at me".

"I miss Hollow Earth" Kate says glumly.

"We could move back?" Will offers.

"Yeah I think ruins would make a nice place to raise a kid" Henry agrees. “Bring a few throw pillows, make the place more ‘homey’...”

"You could always move to London. At least you would have a good excuse." As soon as he suggests it, Will curses at himself internally. The only thing that could make this less bearable would be if Henry left.

"Nah" the HAP replies, bumping his shoulder against Will's. "I couldn't trust the two of you to handle this." Will laughs shakily and they continue their walk, keeping an eye on the brightly coloured young Frengles in front of them.

They hear a squeal of indignation and spy a bright ball of flailing limbs rush past.

"Play fighting" Henry goes. "I got it." And he's off at a run. Kate and Will watch him go, then return their attention to their surroundings. It’s a good few minutes before they hear Henry return.

"Okay we're good." Will blushes when he sees Henry is naked. "I, uhhh, had to HAP out to pry them apart. They're stronger than you'd think.” Will tries to not let his eyes linger on his friends naked form but he can’t quite help but examine him. His muscular chest, his piercings. Will’s practically salivating. No! Bad! His brain yells at him and he quickly looks away.

"Okay. So. What are we going to do?" Kate asks. "About Magnus and her pet vampire?" She explains at their blank looks.

“First of all, I’m getting dressed” Henry says.

“Is this so you can avoid any responsibility?” Kate does not sound impressed. Henry’s already running back to the Sanctuary in HAP form. “You’re the only one he’ll talk to!” She yells at his retreating form and sighs. “He really is, don’t you agree?” She asks of Will but he’s still in the process of trying to get his brain to a working state again. **  
**


	7. You Never Quit in All Your Life

“Okay this is too much.” Kate strides into the room where Henry and Will are hiding out.

“Wha?” The guys turn to look at her questioningly

“Doc? And Count Dracula? You know the 19th century people making our lives a living hell? We’ve gotta do something. Now.”

“It’s gotta be you, Dude.” Will tells Henry. “I know you don’t like the idea. But at least he can’t kill you as easily as he can kill either of us.”

“That is not fair! I’m being singled out because I’m an abnormal? I’m pretty sure that’s persecution or something.”

“Hey, ‘better, faster, stronger’” Will throws Henry’s own words back at him and the HAP sighs.

“Okay I’ll go talk to the stinky vampire. Anybody have any garlic?”  
  
*******  
  
"Okay, dude, I don't really like you all that much, and don't read too much into my saying this, but c'mon! You've been breaking that thing over and over again just so you have something to fix. What's up?” Henry pauses and then thinks better of his question. “Actually, no. Don’t answer that. This has something to do with Magnus and I really don’t want to know.”

“Why don’t you mind your own business, Tiny Tim. I’m sure the pathetically easy task of maintaining the security system is more than enough to keep your inferior mind occupied.”

“Wow. Okay. You are really angry.”

“Your doc kissed me.” Henry stops in his tracks. He did not want to think about that.

“And.... That’s why you’re angry?”

“Yes.” Tesla snaps as if it’s the most obvious thing on the planet and really all Henry wants to do is have this over and dealt with.

“Well I’m sure she would be able to help with that ...problem far more than I can. Why don’t you go talk to her about it?”

“That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. How do you still have a job?”

Henry sighs and he’s had enough. Vlad’s nasty and he doesn’t want to have to endure any more of this.

"Go. Talk. To. Her". Henry practically has to propel Nikola out of the lab.

"Now!" He adds as he pushes him in the right direction. "Ugh", he sighs as he leans over his lab bench, resting his face on his crossed arms in front of him. "The things I do for Will Zimmerman".  
  
*********  
  
Helen hears footsteps and assumes it's Will.

"You'd bloody well better have a cup of tea on you" she calls out, but he doesn't reply. There's a knock on the door. "For god's sake Will just come in!" Again, no reply. Just another knock.

"Oh bloody hell!" Has he lost the ability to open doors? she wonders. She's about at the end of her tether with that fucking boy. She throws the door open, and the person in front of her is definitively not Will.

Nikola is standing in front of her, leaning casually against the door jam, hands tucked in his pockets and looking as good as ever.  Except... She wrinkles her nose,

"You are in desperate need of a shower". He shrugs,

"So I've been told. You are in desperate need of a sedative".

"A sedative? Really, Nikola? You’re going to barge in here after weeks of cowering in your lab and tell me that I need a sedative!"

"Hey, knock it off Helen. You don't get to be the angry one here."

"What the hell do you mean?"

"I am not the one going around her new Sanctuary kissing people for larks and then running off without a word!"

"People, Nikola?" she jabs a finger into his chest. "Vampire, remember?"

"Oh so it's just me then? I'm flattered Helen, I really am"

"You weren’t complaining all that much at the time. If I remember correctly.”

“You didn’t really give me much chance to, if you’ll remember correctly.” She draws in a breath but he continues quickly before she has a chance to reply. “I’m sorry, was I supposed to lodge a complaint before or after the ultimatum about the wine? Or would sometime in the following weeks while you worked William to the bone and snapped at everyone, even Heinrich, have worked better?” She winces a bit internally at his description.

“Fine, thank you. Message received. No more kissing and I’ll be nicer to the ‘children’.” She makes air quotes around his moniker for her team and is moving to go back inside when he speaks.

"Oh no. The kissing, I like. Very much. It's the running off without a word I could do without."

"Really, Nikola? I would have thought that was exactly what you were looking for: a kiss, maybe more, and then we never speak of it again. Isn’t that what you have always wanted?”

"Not really. Don’t get me wrong, talking can be overrated, but you running off and all doesn’t give me much of a chance to do this,” He grabs her wrist and pulls her to him, soft lips landing on hers and she's lost once more in the sensation of him. Tongues darting back and forth in her favourite battle for dominance with this infuriating, ridiculous man. No. Wait. She's still pissed at him. She pulls her mouth away and god that hint of a pout on his lips makes her want to just put it right back where it was.

"Nikola we can't do this."

"Why not? I like it. If a hundred plus years of knowing you serves me right, you like it too. And I'm pretty sure the kiddies have run off to the furthest corner of your property to hide."

"We're friends, Nikola". His jaw tightens,

"Friends do this type of thing all the time" and it's the slightly forced note of self-deprecation in his tone that tells her all she needs to know.

"Well" she amends. "Not just friends." His grin is quick and she can't help the flutter of excitement it raises in her.

"Certainly not."

"God, Nikola." His arms wrap around her and she sinks into his embrace and it's this feeling, this comfort, that she was worried that she would miss.

They stay like that for a few moments, wrapped in each other's arms in the doorway to her study, until Nikola breaks the silence.

"Is it the age difference? Because you know, I have thought about it and it really doesn't threaten me at all to be with a woman almost twice my age—"

"Nikola?" She breaks in.

"Yes?"

"Shut up". And with that she kisses him soundly and god if it isn't even better when she isn't worrying about a million things and she can just let herself go in his embrace. There is, however, one more thing. "Nikola?"

"Oh god what is it now?"

"Now, you need to bathe. Badly."

"Do you wanna help me?"

"I am going to go have my own shower, thank you very much."

"We would save water."

"Actually I don't think we would."

"But there's this one spot in the middle of my back that I can never quite reach." She gently steers him so he's facing the direction to his room.

"Go!" He strides down the hallway, perfectly aware of when he's lost. "Oh and Nikola?" He turns back. "Be quick about it."  
  
****  
“Good morning Will.”

“Uhhh Magnus. Hi” Will mumbles through a mouthful of his breakfast.

“Beautiful day, isn’t it?” She asks as she fills the kettle and places it on the stove.

“Yeah. Looks like it.” She bustles about the kitchen, getting the tea ball ready and fixing herself something to eat. Will can’t do anything but sit at the table and watch in astonishment. Magnus hasn’t been this happy in, well, in a really long time. Once her tea is finished she places the teapot and a cup on her tray and walks off. Kate walks in a few moments after.

“You seen Magnus this morning?” She asks as she pours herself a cup of coffee.

“Yeah. She’s... uhhhhh...”

“Glowing?”

“Oh god.” The implication hits him and even though it was a fairly inevitable result he so does not want to think about his boss getting it on.

“I’m pretty sure I even saw a hickey.”

“Hickey?” Henry asks, entering the room.

“Yeah. Apparently ol’ Vlad isn’t as celibate as we thought.”

“He was in his lab when I went down there earlier.” Henry tells them. “He was whistling.”

“And on the list of things I never wanted to think about...” Will says and Henry nods in assent.

“Oh c’mon guys! Loosen up! I mean, if you really think about it, we made it happen.” Will and Henry both glare at Kate and she shrugs. “What, I’m just saying. If Hank hadn’t had his little heart-to-heart with Tesla they’d probably still be avoiding each other.”

“Okay. We get it. We got Magnus laid.” Henry replies. “Now I vote we never talk about this again.”

“Seconded.”

“Prudes.” Kate replies and then laughs at their glares. “Okay. Okay! No more talking about it.”


	8. Tell Me Your Weakness (Oh I Keep it a Secret)

"I hope you know I'm missing Fan Expo because of this" Henry grumbles as they convene in the hangar.

"Come again?" Helen is slightly distracted with trying to make sure that everyone has arrived and looks like they haven't forgotten anything.

"Fan Expo Canada? It's like Comic Con only when someone runs into you in full Halo gear they take the time to say 'sorry'."

"Would it make you feel better if we called it Sanctuary Con?" She asks. Henry thinks about it.

"Weirdly enough I think it will."

"Well then. This trip has officially been named Sanctuary Con 2012. Any other objections before we're on our way?" The team before her shake their heads and she smiles as they all board the plane.

"Hey" Will says, nudging Henry. "Shouldn't you be excited? You get to see Erika!" He utters her name dreamily, fanning himself and Henry frowns at his antics.

"No of course, of course. I just had the best cosplay idea."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yup."

"Oh c'mon! What was it?"

"Oh no no no! You will find out what it is the same time everyone else does: next year at Fan Expo 2013!" Will sighs.

"Oh cheer up Will." And, taking a leaf out of his best friend's book, Henry makes a horrible imitation of a British accent as he says "we're going to England!"  
  
****  
  
Declan and Erika are waiting for them at the London Sanctuary's private airstrip just outside the city.

"Have a good flight?" Declan asks.

"Oh yeah!" Will replies with far too much gusto. "We only almost-crashed twice!"

Everybody laughs, though Helen may or may not be mouthing 'no Christmas bonus' at him from across the group. Will shakes his head and then regrets it as his widened periphery catches Henry and Erika greeting each other with a kiss.

"Well then" Declan breaks into his thoughts. "Shall we?"

The groups moves into the waiting SUV and they drive off to the London Sanctuary.  
  
****  
  
Declan directs them all to their rooms and gives them each a key.

"I won't be needing this, my fine sir" Nikola tells him, handing the key back with a flourish. Declan looks a bit confused and Nikola elaborates. "Helen has finally admitted that she is desperately in love with me and even one night apart would cause her terrible despair. We really wouldn't want to put any undue strain on her beautiful, delicate shoulders now would we?" Declan doesn't really believe this and looks past Nikola to see Helen standing waiting.

"Is that true?" Nikola gasps, his now free hand going to his chest

"Would I lie to you?"

"Helen?" Declan prompts, still holding the returned key uncertainly in his hand.

"Not entirely Declan." She replies, and Declan is moving to return the key to the vampire in front of him when she continues.

"But we certainly won't be needing that key."

Nikola thoroughly enjoys the shocked look on the man's face as he walks to join Helen, grabbing her hand in his as they walk off.

"You enjoyed that too much" she tries to sound chastising but he can hear the enjoyment in her tone.

"Oh, and you didn't?"

"I never said that" She replies and he squeezes her hand slightly as they walk down the hall.  
  
****  
  
Will wanders through the hallway. He really doesn't want to think about Henry and Erika doing whatever it is they are probably doing at this time of night and, even more so, he really doesn't want to think about why he doesn't want to think about it. So he wanders. He's a little bit surprised to see the warm glow of light seeping out under the door of Declan's office.

He knocks on the door and at an acknowledgement from within walks inside.

"So is the whole not-sleeping thing a head-of-house-thing? I thought it was just a Magnus-thing."

"Will" Declan greets warmly. "I couldn't sleep. Figured I may as well do some billing."

"I've been having the same predicament, Will replies. "I chose to memorise the floor plan of your Sanctuary instead"

"Well then, care for a scotch?" Declan gets up from his desk and motions Will to have a seat on the sofa.

“Sure. Thanks.” He pours them each a glass as Will takes a seat and they sit in silence for a few moments.

“What’s it been like?” Declan asks. “The New Sanctuary, I mean. I’ve heard it’s beautiful but it must be strange. I can’t imagine living under the surface like that.”

“It is beautiful. It’s strange. There are so many things we no longer have to worry about. So many things we took for granted in Old City. And it’s a lot of work to stay incognito.”

“I bet.”

“But it’s good, you know? The abnormals have so much more free reign. They can go outside, they can run around or do whatever. I mean, we have rules of course. No hunting or grounds privileges will be revoked, things like that. But it’s nice. Not that the Old City Sanctuary wasn’t nice, hell not that the abnormals here aren’t still happy, but a cage you enter voluntarily is still a cage no matter how well it’s made.”

“That’s the truth.”

“And I have a feeling it’s almost tougher for you guys up here these days. What with Magnus’ big revelation and everything.”

“It’s been a challenge, yeah. There’s been a lot of interest in the Sanctuary from sources that may not be the most... constructive.”

“Ahhh. Yes.”

“You were seeing a girl, if I remember. Amy, Abby?”

“Abby. Yeah. We... We broke up.”

“I’m sorry, mate.”

“Yeah. It was a long time coming. I think in a lot of ways it’s hard to have something with someone who isn’t part of the insanity, you know?”

“I fully understand. It’s a challenge to find someone you’re attracted to who also understands our work.”

“Exactly.” And as he says it, he can’t help but let his eyes drift over Declan’s form. He’s an undeniably attractive man, well built, intelligent, and the silver streaks in his hair only make him more attractive. Shit you don’t even know if he’s gay Will. This whole straight guy thing has got to stop. He gives himself a mental shake and turns his attention back to the man beside him. But Declan’s eyes are fixed on his mouth and there’s a look in them that Will is pretty damn certain he’s not mistaking.

Will leans forward and catches Declan's mouth with his own. God it's been ages since he's been with a man and the rough feel of Declan's stubble against his palm, chapped lips kissing him back for all he's worth is exhilarating.

Declan pulls back slightly.

"Have you ever done this before, mate?" And Will nods,

"Yeah, in college. It's been a while. You?"

"Yeah. But." Declan's breath catches for a second. "Not since James."

"Are you okay? We don't have to do this.  I mean—”

"No! No I mean I'm good. I want to do this." He grins and the sadness is just a shadow again. "It's been a really long time." Will laughs and as Declan kisses him again, he moves his hands down to stroke his hips, darting under his sweater and revelling in the strong muscles he finds underneath.  
  
****

“I don’t understand why you can’t move to the London Sanctuary. Declan would relish your expertise.”

“I can’t leave Magnus, the Sanctuary is my home. I don’t understand why we can’t just keep our relationship as is? It’s been working fine for us the past months.”

“Has it really, Henry? You are always working. You never have time for me. I’m at the point where I’m fairly sure Mr. Tesla is higher on your list of priorities than I.” Henry tries to protest that but he knows she has a point.

“I’ll be better. We can skype more.”

“Can we, really? And even if you somehow do create time for that out of your apparently very busy schedule how do you think that that’s going to suddenly magic away all of our problems?”

"This... Isn't going to work, is it?" Henry asks, looking down at his shoes to avoid her eyes.

"No" she replies simply, and it's that direct honesty that he loves that much.

"I'm sorry" he tells her.

"Me too." She laughs. "But I don't think that's really getting us very far." He smiles in assent.

"I guess a baby doesn't really solve any problems, huh?"

"From everything I've seen and heard it tends to just complicate them by a factor of about a thousand." He nods.

"Yeah. What about..." He gestures vaguely at her stomach and she's quick to reassure him.

"Shared custody. I think. I would never take this away from you, I know how excited you are to be a father."

"Yeah. It might be a bit tough on them though." She smiles up at him.

"Our child will be tough Henry. We'll work out the details. I don't think any child being raised in a Sanctuary would be 'normal'."

"Yeah."

"So..."

"So. I'm gonna go grab that extra key from Declan." She looks as though she might be about to stop him. To say 'it's okay, you can sleep here' but she doesn't and he knows it's for the best.

"I'll see you in the morning? Before we leave?"

"Of course" she smiles and Henry leaves.  
  
******

Henry walks down the halls to Declan's office, dwelling on the conversation he's just had. When he reaches Declan's study, the lights are on and his door is ajar. pushing it open slightly he's shocked at what he sees in front of him.

Will and Declan are standing in the middle of the room. Both men are shirtless and Will's mouth is latched onto Declan's neck and Declan's head is thrown back in sheer pleasure. Henry trails his eyes down their bodies and sees Will's hand wrapped around Declan's cock. He takes it all in in an instant and then he's booking it down the hall.

He finds an empty sitting room and lies down on the couch. It’s not cold and he’s comfortable but he can’t sleep, his mind going a hundred miles a minute. He was surprised when Will drunkenly came out to him and Kate a few months ago, but it never bothered him. Why would it? He doesn’t care about Will’s sexuality, at least he never thought he cared about Will’s sexuality and as for the whole sexuality debate in general, he was raised by Helen Magnus it’s not like he ever had a problem with any form of sexuality, human or abnormal. But somehow something about seeing Will with Declan has his stomach in knots. He’s mad? Angry? Disappointed? Disappointed. He’s disappointed because... Why?

Because it was Declan and not you a little corner of his mind says. Yup. That’s it. He closes his eyes and thuds his head against the couch arm.

“Shit”.

So he has a thing for his bisexual best friend who has never shown the slightest interest in him and also happens to be a guy which means he, Henry, has 0% of a clue what to do with any of this.

The same little corner of his mind starts to throw frame by frame images of Will’s naked, sculpted torso at him. Henry thinks that that little corner of his mind is really incredibly gay.


	9. September’s Getting Colder as it Goes

“So have you two had ‘The Talk’ yet?”

“‘The Talk’? Will, Henry is about to be a father I think we’re well past the days of ‘The Talk’”

“No! Not Henry. And not that ‘The Talk’! Nikola and you. That talk.”

“What talk?”

“The Talk.”

“I do actually have work to get done, Will. I don’t really have time to discuss whatever conversation you seem to think Nikola and I may or may not be having.”

“‘The Talk’ is the relationship talk. You know? I like you, you like me, my employees have all been noticing my hickeys, where is this going?” She self-consciously puts a hand up to her neck as he talks and then quickly removes it and pretends she has no idea what he’s talking about.

“And this is something that we’re supposed to do... why, exactly?”

“To figure out what you both want from the relationship. Are you just fooling around? Are you boyfriend and girlfriend?” She laughs a little because the idea of calling Nikola her boyfriend is just a tad absurd.

“When you’ve known someone for over a hundred years, Will, that type of distinction has a tendency to lose it’s merit.”

“Fine. Don’t use those words. But it’s important to think about. Where are the two of you gonna be in 10 years? 20? 100? Considering the fact that you are very probably gonna live for ever it’s even more important.” She can’t help but privately admit he has a bit of a point. She’s well past the point of marriage, but she and Nikola need to decide if this is a fun fling, friends with rather substantial benefits, or something altogether more. The idea of a relationship lasting forever is a bit terrifying, she truly hasn’t thought of anything more than a couple of years’ dalliance in decades. Since John, really. But she can’t help but allow her brain to play with the idea of being with Nikola forever. She smiles, at least she’d never get bored.  
  
  
*****  
  
  
The next evening she's ensconced in Nikola's arms on the couch, he’s sitting with his legs stretched out before him and he has his left arm wrapped around her waist as she’s curled into his chest, her legs tucked under her and fabulous heels abandoned on the floor. They’re enjoying a nice Argentinian Malbec—apparently kisses under the ear are a great way to convince Nikola to do anything, even try a vintage as new as a 2006—and she can’t stop thinking about what Will said. She fiddles with the edge of her skirt as she speaks.

"Will says we're supposed to talk."

"Will's a psychiatrist, talking is a sickening obsession with his breed." She laughs and curls a mite closer, enjoying the way his arm wraps a little bit tighter around her waist. "But if Will says we must... This is surprisingly nice wine. A bit too light for my liking but what can one expect from so young a vintage." She laughs,

"I think he meant talk about us."

"About us? And what does young Willhelm think there is for us to talk about? I for one am quite happy."

"Mmmm" she assents. "He says we're supposed to 'define our relationship'"

“Am I supposed to ask for permission to court you? Or give you some token to see if you’re willing to ‘go steady’” She bursts out laughing. “Hey! I don’t know what the fashion is these days. Want me to text you and ask you to be my girlfriend?” His tone highlights the absurdity of it all and she can’t help but agree,

“It’s not quite the same for us, is it?”

“Not at all. For starters, most people only have one lifetime to think of. We’ve already been friends for two.” She nods and she doesn’t know how to answer because this is Nikola and she doesn’t even know how to quantify her feelings for him. All she knows is that sometime between running after Adam into the late 19th century and returning to the Sanctuary she had realised she cared for him much more deeply than she ever would have thought possible.

“I... I don’t know, Nikola. How do we say what, what this is.” He nods and drains his glass.

“I have no idea.”

“Now that is something I never thought I’d hear you say!”

“Rude!” He exclaims and if she didn’t know him as well as she does she might very well have believed him to be truly hurt, but she can hear the glow in his voice and she laughs at his mock pain. She doesn’t even notice him putting down his glass, but suddenly she’s lying prone on the couch and he’s straddling her, pinning her down beneath him. He’s got a malicious gleam in his eye and she is quick to apologise

“I’m sorry! Nikola! Utterly repentant” but she is utterly incapable of keeping a straight face and he’s grinning outright as he leans down and begins nipping and sucking at her throat.

Her laughs become breathy moans and she can’t help but squirm underneath him, grinding her hips against his. He still hasn’t released her wrists and she struggles to break her hands out of his grasp so that she may try to gain the upper hand. They grapple back and forth, kissing each other intermittently as each tries to assert their dominance.

Finally, once they are both thoroughly out of breath, Nikola accedes and allows her to pin him back and kiss him soundly.

He gets up and pulls her up to stand in front of him, holding her gaze as he speaks, and the serious tone is so out of place on his oh-so-familiar voice that she almost can’t really believe that it’s him, here, talking to her.

“I’m here to stay, if you want me. I don’t think either of us are really the marrying type, especially at our age. But if you want me here I’ll stay and we can make a go of... Of whatever this is.” She looks up at him and smiles.

“A heartfelt proposal if I ever heard one”

“I’m serious Helen -”

“I know.” She smiles nervously. “I know you are and I’m not quite sure...” She trails off again and there’s a big part of her that wishes she could just kiss him and forget about this conversation and deal with forever when it comes but she tells that part of her to shush and she takes a deep breath. “I’ll think about it, okay? And you’ll be the first to know.” He nods and grins a bit and he knows that this is the best she can do for now.

“I’ll know when you know?” he wants her to promise because Helen has a slight tendency to make massive life-changing plans and decisions and not really tell anyone about them.

“Oh” she says with a smile. “You’ll know.” And with that her hands come up to cup his face and pull his lips to hers because she is so done with talking.  
  
*****  
  
“Henry?” Will steps into the lab and sees his friend sitting at his computer.

“Hey Will.”

“Hey. Uhhhh” Will digs his hands into his pockets and shuffles his feet. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“What?”

“Why didn’t you tell me that you and uhhh Erika umm. Broke up.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“How did you find out?”

“Ummm. I was skyping with Declan and he mentioned that Erika had said something.

Henry hears the name Declan and, unbidden his mind immediately flashes back to London, Will's hand on Declan's dick and he snaps back.

"Oh Declan told you?"

"Ummm yeah. We were skyping about—" but Henry doesn't want to hear it.

"I have work to do, Will. Why don't you gossip about it with Declan on your next skype date?"

"Wait. What?"

"Yeah. That's right. I saw you two going at it last month so if you want someone to talk to go call your boyfriend and leave me in peace."


	10. The Things That are Given Not Won (Are the Things That You Earned)

“Excuse me?”

“Oh I’m sorry, did you want to actually explain why you’re so pissed at me or are you just enjoying striding around all pissy without an actual reason?”

“Without an actual reason? You honestly think you’re innocent in all of this?

“Oh come off it, Helen! You screwed up. Sorry that I’m not one of your little minions who will sit back and let you blame them for whatever the hell you so please but I am not in the wrong here.”

“Not in the wrong? You cheeky bastard!”

And one second they’re screaming bloody murder and the next they are kissing furiously, tongues battling for dominance as their hands scrape at each others’ clothes. Nikola’s not really sure which of them moved first but he really doesn’t care, he’s much too busy pinning Helen up against a wall and nudging her legs apart with one of his own, grinning against her mouth as she grinds down on his thigh.  
  
****  
  
In the aftermath they catch their breath, Helen seated on a sofa and Nikola lying down along the length of it, his head in her lap.

“I’ve never done that before.” She looks puzzled and he’s quick to clarify,

“Angry sex. It was really quite enjoyable.” She laughs at his nonchalant description because she can see his chest still heaving with the exertion of the past half hour, his eyes still dark with arousal, can remember the intensity with which he came.

“I have.”

She says it simply, it’s not a challenge or a mockery, merely a fact.

“I doubt there’s much you haven’t done when it comes to sex.”

“Hmmm. There are a few things...” She trails off, running her hands through his hair, and they rest, soaking in the sound of each others settling breaths. Nikola’s not quite sure why he speaks when he does, but once he starts he can’t stop, and somehow he feels as if it needs to be said.

“The history books love to mention my celibacy. It’s a little bit funny how seriously they all take it. It’s true of course, I was celibate for a good portion of my life. It just seemed so... So frivolous, so unimportant compared to my work. And I realised fairly early on that I didn’t experience attraction quite like other people apparently do.”

“Hmmm,” She’s not prompting him to go on, nor objecting, just letting him know she’s listening and he appreciates the gesture as he moves forward.

“I mean, I have had sex. A few times. It always seemed like a tremendous waste of time unless it was somehow a means to an end. I could have been working, you know?” He laughs because it just seems so unreal to be saying it “I don’t think I’ve ever felt desire like I do now.”

“So all that flirting was really just a sham? I must admit I’m a tad disappointed to hear that, Nikola.”

“Not a sham. Not with you, at least. But how else could I so beautifully antagonize not only you but almost invariably any of your companions or employees at any given time? Not that I didn’t consider you attractive, I think I’ve thought you were beautiful since that first day at Oxford, but recently, now, it’s.... different.”

“There’s a term for that, you know.”

“Hmmm?”

“Demisexual. A person who does not experience sexual attraction unless they form a strong emotional connection with someone.”

“Strong emotional connection. Yes that... That makes sense.” She smiles and leans down to kiss him gently.

“Well I’m glad we got that sorted. Now, are you coming to bed?” He’s on his feet in an instant, offering a gentlemanly hand to help her off the couch and then tucking her arm in his as they walk up to her room.  
  
*******  
  
Will stands in the kitchen feeling slightly, no very entirely lost. He has about a hundred things, it seems, all cooking at once and he is so in over his head. Thanksgiving really shouldn’t be this hard, he thinks. But it is and he’s never cooked a full meal really beyond Kraft Dinner or frozen pizza, and while the theory of cooking doesn’t seem to be too challenging, putting it all into practice is no mean feat.

“Okay. Okay. I can do this.” He murmurs to himself. Potatoes need to be mashed, the stuffing’s almost ready to go and the bird’s in the oven. The vegetables littering the counter and stove in various states of readiness can be dealt with as he is able.

“Dude!” He hears a familiar voice behind him and winces. He and Henry haven’t really talked since Henry’s big freak out about Declan that Will still doesn’t understand. But he’s been giving him space and it seems the HAP’s been returning the favour. He turns around to see Henry standing in the entrance to the kitchen looking a bit... horrified. Will shrugs,

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I was trying to cook a Thanksgiving meal but it, uhhh, got a bit out of hand.” Henry doesn’t leave, doesn’t glare, doesn’t have any of the myriad reactions Will was expecting, Henry just stands in front of him and bursts out laughing.

“Sorry! Sorry.” He says, wiping his eyes as he settles down. “It’s just. Oh man. You and you have food everywhere and the kitchen... Oh god. Okay.” He takes a few breaths. “How can I help?”

“H-help?”

“Yeah, it looks like you could use it!” Will can’t really deny that. He shrugs and looks around.

“Uhhh. If you want, you could deal with the potatoes? And maybe the beets? They need to be peeled and boiled too.”

“Kay. Cool.” They both get to work, peeling and chopping assorted veggies while simultaneously trying to keep an eye on the turkey in the oven and clean the kitchen up a little.

“Thanks.” Will ventures out the comment, they’ve been working silently side by side for an hour by now and Will feels as though he should say something, anything to get rid of this awkward silence between them. “I mean, I really couldn’t have done it without you so thank you.”

“Yeah, no problem.” And they go back to work, the air between them slightly more clear.  
  
*******  
  
They all sit down together in front of Will’s, possibly less than magnificent feast. Helen smiles regardless and raises her wine glass in a toast. Seated around the table are Henry, Will, Kate, Nikola and herself and she feels truly surrounded by family.

“Well I, for one, am thankful for hard work and a place to do it in.” She nods to Nikola on her right and he seems to think for a second before following her with the tradition.

“I am thankful for progress. For the lessons afforded to us by yesterday and the possibilities engendered by tomorrow.” Helen has always enjoyed hearing the profound, if pompous, statements that such traditional speeches seem to bring out in her oldest friend.

“I am thankful for tech, for the Sanctuary, and for a hopefully very healthy baby on the way”

“I’m thankful for friends,” Will continues. “For honesty, and for all the work we do.”

“I’m thankful for food... Usually.” Kate declares with a mocking grin. “And,” she concedes, “for good company to share it with.” They all toast each other and settle in to eat Will’s attempt at a meal.  
  
****

“Will, you’re fired from cook-duty.” Nikola declares after they’re done their meal.

“Okay, one that isn’t a job, two you don’t even eat!”

“Which gives me the delightful advantage of an objective opinion.”

“Oh please. Magnus!” He turns to his boss to plead her help in this matter and she smiles indulgently.

“You did a fine job, Will.” He can see her hand slip to Nikola’s thigh in a squeeze that no doubt means be nice to the protege but he spent most of the day slaving over this meal and he’ll take what he can take in terms of praise, or at the very least the suspension of mockery.

“Yeah Will. It was good.” Kate pipes up. That was one voice of support Will hadn’t been expecting.

“Really?”

“Oh yeah! I especially liked the part where the charred turkey skin kind of dissolved into ash in my mouth.”

“Oh shut up!” She laughs at his snappish reply and he glares in response.

“Well if you liked it so much you can help me clean up.” Kate looks like she’s about to protest but she seems to weigh her odds and then just sighs and begins piling dishes.


	11. You Can Fool It Till the Season's Changing

"I thought you didn't care about governments anymore" he teases Helen gently. "Isn't that the point of this place?."

"Shhh. Nikola this is important!" He loves the look in her eye when she's pissed at him and he can't help but egg her on.

"I'm sure." She tosses her head and turns to him to explain.

"Looking beyond their mere policies, Obama is an altrayn, a sharp and hardy abnormal but they are not only highly intelligent but also compassionate and reasonable. Romney is a draithmot. While intelligent, draithmot are cruel, ruthless and completely uncontrollable. Which would you prefer to be leading one of the most powerful countries in the world?"

"I see your point" he concedes and she turns back to her news coverage with a huff. Nikola takes a sip of wine and casually slips his hand onto her upper thigh. She bats his hand away—Helen has made it quite clear that PDA, especially in front of the kiddies, was completely out of the question—but when he drops his hand down into the small space between their bodies, she slips her hand into his.

Nikola grins and decides that maybe paying attention to this televised drivel might well be to his advantage.  
  
****  
  
"We are announcing a win for Obama" the newscaster proclaims and they all erupt into action. Will shouts

"Yes!" Henry fist pumps the air, and Kate grins in victory.

Helen sinks back into the couch cushions and smiles widely.

"Thank god" she murmurs.  
  
*****  
  
They get back to her room, their room? No Nikola is fairly sure that until she gives him a reply on his somewhat-proposal it is still definitively her room. Even though a number of his suits have snuck into her closets and other articles of his clothing have ended up in her drawers. Despite the fact that, in everything but the technicality of his unused room down the hall, he lives here now, it is still quite definitely Helen's room.

"Thank you for watching the elections coverage with me Nikola" she says huskily and he knows that tone of voice very well by now.

"Yes well, if you'd like to make it up to me I can think of a few ideas." He's teasing, mostly. And he certainly isn't expecting what comes next. Helen smirks,

"I'm sure you can." He's in the process of unbuttoning his vest when she walks up to him and kisses him deeply, her tongue reaching into his mouth to battle with his own. He groans deeply and pulls her impossibly closer, tangling his hands in her hair and tugging sharply. She moans and snakes a hand down to his crotch, palming him through his trousers.

"Helen" he gasps, tearing his mouth away from hers.

"Shhh," she murmurs. "I'm making it up to you." She bites his neck and licks the mark, smiling at his throaty gasp as her hands begin to undo his belt.

*******  
  
It’s late November when Erika and Declan arrive from London. Henry stalwartly ignores Declan, barely interacts with Will and is polite, if awkward, to Erika. He and Will, despite their Thanksgiving-day truce still haven’t reconciled and, though Henry is no longer angry, he has no volition to. Reasonable or not, he feels like Will betrayed him in London. This all leads him to be working in the solitude of his lab on a Saturday morning, door closed and the newest Sea Wolf album blasting as loud as he can possibly play it. He considers putting a sign on the door saying “Do Not Disturb” but that seems a bit over the top.

“What is that racket and could you turn it down please? Some of us are trying to get work done.” Then again, maybe the sign was a good idea.

“Suck it up, Vlad. My lab. My rules.”

“Oh really? So if I just—” the music cuts off abruptly and Henry whirls around to see Tesla standing there, plug in hand, looking as aggravatingly self-pleased as ever. Henry can’t stop himself, he immediately HAPs out and, with an angry growl, pushes Tesla against the wall. Tesla doesn’t waste any time vamping out and then he’s giving as good as he gets. They rip at each other with their claws as they tussle through the lab and Henry is so angry that he doesn’t even care when he hears the clatter of instruments falling to the ground. The fight goes on for a few minutes until Henry, breathless and bloody pushes away and transforms back into human form. 

“Feel better?” Tesla asks, and if it weren’t for the rips on his clothing it would be impossible from his casual demeanor to tell he’d been fighting furiously just moments before. Henry sighs.

“Yeah. Look. I’m sorry—”

“Hey. No apology needed.” And with that Tesla is leaving the lab. “Keep your music down.” He calls in parting.

Henry sighs and goes to a nearby cabinet to grab a spare change of clothes.


	12. Just Hear Those Sleigh Bells Jingling

“Merry Christmas Magnus.” Magnus turns around from her spot on the ladder where she’s busy hanging ornaments on the massive tree in the front hall of the Sanctuary.

“Merry Christmas Will.” She says with a smile.

“Need a hand?”

“I think I’ll be alright. Nikola’s around to help me if I need it.”

“I don’t see him.”

“Ahh,” she replies with a gentle smile. “I believe he’s off procuring more wine.”

“Ah. Of course!” They share warm smiles.

“I think Henry may need a hand, however. He’s upstairs decorating the halls.”

“With boughs of holly?” Magnus doesn’t even grace that with a response. Will squares his shoulders and moves off to find Henry. He and Henry haven’t been the closest since Henry’s blow up a few months back, and while they are no longer bitterly antagonistic they aren’t yet back to the point of mutual “dude”-ness.  
He sees Henry in the hall, stretched up on tip-toes and trying to affix a piece of garland to the wall and Will takes a few seconds to let his eyes linger on the delightful shape of Henry’s ass. _No checking out the straight guy_ he admonishes himself.

“Do you want a hand?” He asks and Henry jumps in shock. “Oh. Sorry.”

“No problem. I just wasn’t expecting you. Ummm. Yeah If you could help me with this” he waves the piece of material in his hands.

“Sure” Will replies, moving forward and taking the garland out of Henry’s hands. He holds it up to what he hopes is the desired height and turns to Henry.

“This goo...” He trails off as he realises just how close he and Henry are. Faces nearly touching, they stare at eachother for a few seconds and Will can’t help but breathe in the sensation of being this close to him. He snaps himself out of his Henry-induced trance and clears his throat. “Is this good?” He asks, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Ummm. Yeah. That’s good. Great!” And if Will didn’t know better he’d think that Henry’s blushing.

“Okay. Good.” He takes a pin from him, trying not to let his breath catch audibly when Henry’s figures brush his in the process, and pins the garland to the wall. “Well... Shall we?”  
  
******  
  
“I still think it’s a waste.” Nikola’s apparently returned from getting more wine and Helen tries to hide her smile at his antics, he’s been griping about Christmas ever since she declared that December meant Christmas and began putting up decorations. Apparently a day full of putting up decorations wasn’t doing much to improve his mood.

“Really, Nikola! It’s Christmas. Of course it’s a waste, but it’s a celebratory waste.” He sniffs deprecatingly and pours himself a generous glass of wine.

“Would you care for some libations, my dear?” He calls.

“Yes please!” She climbs down from her ladder and goes to stand with him. Glass in hand, she turns back to admire her handiwork. “You must admit it’s beautiful, Nikola.”

“That it is.” But when she cheats a glance in his direction he’s staring at her and she can’t help but blush faintly.

“Don’t think you can be a negative nancy all day about my favourite holiday and then charm your way into my bed tonight, mister.”

“I can’t, really?” And he’s far too smug. She grabs his wine-free hand and pulls him to her. He wraps his hand around her waist and walks with her as she begins to move.

“I just don’t see how you can dislike Christmas. A massive celebration, lots of presents, lots of wine. The love, the friendship. And the world is beautiful at Christmas time. The blanket of crisp white snow making everything so much more peaceful than it would otherwise be.”

“So I take it it’s your doing that despite the fact that we live in an artificially controlled natural habitat underground we still have snow.” She smiles,

“Isn’t it beautiful?” He shakes his head and she can’t help but love his sneer of disdain. She knows he is making his dislike of Christmas out to be bigger than it truly is but she can’t help but enjoy it. “Nikola Tesla, are you really telling me that there is absolutely nothing you like about Christmas?” She glances up as she says this and, following her lead, he sees that she has cleverly maneuvered them into a doorway and, thus, under a clump of mistletoe.

“Well,” he replies, “maybe there are are a few things...” And he pulls her flush against him as he kisses her soundly.  
  
******  
  
“Eggnog?” Kate asks. “It’s non alcoholic.”

“Thank you,” Erika graciously accepts.

“Man, This has gotta be awkward for you, huh?” She plops down on an empty chair as she speaks and reaches her feet out towards the roaring fire in the sitting room.

“What?”

“Hey, you’re drinks non-alcoholic. I made no promises about mine. But seriously. Awkward?” Erika grimaces a bit and Kate’s just a bit too buzzed to really care about the neon ‘I really don’t want to talk about it’ sign she’s got above her head.

“It is” she sighs. “I’m glad I’m here. Dr. Magnus is truly chiefly responsible for helping me with my earlier complications with the pregnancy and I’m very glad she’s overseeing everything personally, but yes. It is incredibly awkward.

“Hah. I bet. Ex-boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend’s ex-best-friend. Ex-boyfriend's ex-best-friend’s one night stand. Awkward as all hell. And that’s not even including the Doc and her over-sexed boy toy.” Erika’s eyes have widened perceptibly.

“How many of those have you had, Kate?”

“You know, I was just asking that of myself.” Kate admits. “Sorry. I probably shouldn’t have said any of that.”

“I know about Dr. Magnus and Mr. Tesla, they aren’t exactly subtle about it, but who was the one night stand on this list? Unless...” She trails off and looks at Kate expectantly. Kate snorts.

“Please, no. No. No no no. I would never. Will? No. Just. No.”

“Sorry, I just thought...”

“Of course. Yeah. No. But the one night stand is Declan. I thought you knew that?”

“Declan?” Kate shrugs and drains her glass.

“Apparently.”

“I mean, it’s no big secret in London that he and James... But Will and Declan?”

“Yeah. So said we all.” She shakes her head. “I’m sorry. Look. I’m a little bit buzzed and I probably shouldn’t have told you any of that. I just... assumed you knew, I guess.”

“It’s no problem. I won’t say a word.” Kate gets to her feet, a tad unsteadily perhaps.

“Thanks Erika.” She says, patting the other woman clumsily on the shoulder. “It’ll be nice having another chick around here. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need another drink.”  
  
*******  
  
“Where’s Magnus and the vamp?” Will asks as he sits down at the overladen table.

“Where else?” Kate says with a leer and a grin and Henry wrinkles his nose while Erika laughs. Declan smirks like he’s trying not to and Will shakes his head at all of their antics. About a minute later, Nikola and Helen arrive. Helen’s hair is mussed slightly and one of the buttons on Nikola’s vest has yet to be done up but no one says anything at they take their seats at the grand dining room table.

“This looks lovely, Will.” Helen says with a smile.

“Compared to Thanksgiving, at least.” Nikola quips and Will steadfastly ignores him.

“Well,” he invites. “Dig in.” And they do with abandon. Even Nikola enjoys himself when he finds that the beautiful opaque goblet and pitcher by his seat hold the blood of his favourite antelope. They all trade war stories. Declan and Erika brings tales and tidbits from the past half-year at the London Sanctuary and Helen shares a few stories of her past.

“I think this has been one of the best Christmases I’ve had in a long time.” She says near the end of the meal, when they are all enjoying dessert. “I think the last Christmas I had that was this enjoyable was 1995.”

“I remember that year!” Henry says. “That was a great Christmas.”

“Oxford, 1880” Nikola murmurs softly and Helen gives him a deep look that Will could analyse for hours. He wonders if that was before or after they injected the source blood. They break eye contact and Nikola clears his throat. “Well, to all our companions, near and far, cherished and lost. Past and present. Merry Christmas.” And Will can almost sense the presence of those others as the six people around the table join him in the toast.  
  
******  
  
Helen is startled from her sleep by an insistent rapping on her bedroom door. She disentangles herself from Nikola’s embrace and goes to see who is disturbing her at 4am. Opening the door she sees Erika, still in night clothes and doubled over in pain.

“Erika?”

“Dr. Magnus. Ow! I think. I think maybe it’s the baby. God it hurts” Helen doesn’t waste any time.

“Nikola!” She calls. “I need your help.” He’s by her side in an instant. “I need you to bring her down to the infirmary for me. And then get Declan. And Henry. Will too.” Nikola sweeps Erika into his arms surprisingly gently and then they’re moving down the hall as quickly as possible.

Once at the infirmary, Nikola lays Erika down on the table and then runs off at inhuman speed to grab the others. Helen, meanwhile, washes her hands quickly and goes to tend to her patient. “I need you to describe to me how it feels.”

“Oh god, Doc. It hurts. My stomach. Oh god. It feels like - ahh! Like the babies coming! But it’s not supposed to come yet!” Erika is panicky and breathless and Helen lays cool hands against her cheeks.

“Listen to me Erika. I need you to take some deep breaths, okay? You’re going to be fine. Your baby is going to be fine. Everything will be alright.” Erika nods shakily and sucks in air.

Helen feels Erika’s abdomen and winces. She turns to Declan,

“We need to get her into the O.R., stat.” Declan and Helen both scrub in quickly and then set up Erika with general anesthetic.

Just as they’re about to open her up, Nikola returns.

“Helen!”

“Nikola I need you to keep Henry out of here.”

“Wha-”

“Just. Go and sit with Henry. Keep him calm. I won’t be able to focus with him around and I need to focus.” He dashes off and she looks at Declan. “Ready?” He nods.  
  
*****

“Henry.” Helen walks out into the hall where Henry has been worrying himself half to death for the past 4 hours. She’s got a small bundle in her arms and he scrambles to his feet. “Congratulations. You’re the father of a healthy, albeit slightly premature baby girl.”

“Erika?” He almost whispers the words and she shakes her head somberly.

“I’m so sorry. There was nothing we could do.” He takes a few deep breaths, steadying himself, and takes the baby from the Doc.

“Hi. Hi little girl. I’m your dad.” Standing behind him, Will looks up at the clock in the corner and murmurs.

“Happy New Years.”


	13. Mommy Did It, Daddy Did It

Henry doesn’t really know much about being a dad. Sure he’s read a ridiculous number of parenting books. But standing here, rocking a wailing Alice in his arms and wishing to all hell that she would just go back to sleep he realises that he has no idea what the fuck he is doing. He still can’t quite believe that he’s a single parent. Erika’s gone and he hasn’t even had the chance to mourn her properly because he’s been all too busy trying to care for his little baby girl. Thanks to Erika’s drawn-out pregnancy Alice’s premature birth put her developmentally almost on par with the average newborn and Henry’s incredibly thankful for that, because even taking care of a predominantly healthy newborn has been the biggest challenge he’s ever faced.

Henry’s not stupid, he has always known that babies aren’t capable of taking care of themselves. But the thing is, he never quite realised the extent of it. Alice can’t even roll over on her own. It’s a wonderful, terrifying thing. Because suddenly his life has become all about her. About her food, her crying, her poop. Not a moment passes in the day when at least part of his brain is not wholly centered on her well-being. Magnus has decreased his duties around the Sanctuary. She has been wonderful, accommodating—they all have been—but he feels removed from his friends in the strangest of ways. Things that would usually have made him stressed no longer even pierce his mind, probably because he hasn’t really slept properly in 2 weeks. But he, Henry Foss, is a dad. And it’s the single most terrifying, beautiful, awesome thing that has ever happened to him.This little tiny human in his arms has suddenly become his entire world. And the funny thing is he doesn’t seem to mind.  
  
  
********  
  
The room beside Henry’s has been marked out as a nursery since Helen first discovered that Erika was pregnant. However she had expected at least another month in which to prepare it and so she rallies Nikola, Kate, and Will to help her. The room is a soft green colour, with a lovely motif of Abnormals cartoonishly adorning the walls. But it is void of furniture save for a rocking chair. The chair in which she had rocked Ashley to sleep when she was a baby was one of the things she made sure to rescue before she brought the Old City Sanctuary down around her ears and she knows it will serve Henry well.

“What exactly is it we’re supposed to be doing here?” Nikola looks around the bare room and quirks an eyebrow at Helen. She sighs and explains, again,

“This spare room is to be the nursery.”

“A bit sparse for that wouldn’t you say?”

“Yes well that’s what we’re doing here. Will, can you and Kate please put the crib together?”

“Good idea,” Nikola comments. He moves over and leans into her, “while they're busy with that, what say you and I take a break?”

“Better idea. What say you and I make ourselves useful and assemble this play pen?” He shrugs and follows her move as she goes towards the boxes laying on the floor.   
  
*******

It takes them most of the day, but their hard work is repaid by a lovely nursery filled with toys, brightly coloured carpets, and necessities such as a changing table. 

When Kate brings Henry in to see the room the look in his eyes makes it all worth it and Helen hopes that Henry has understood what their work there truly means. It’s her way of saying ‘we’re here for you’ and as he shows his daughter around the room she is secure in the knowledge that he has understood.  
  
********  
  
Henry’s dozing at his desk and doesn’t hear the Doc come in.

“Henry” she greets gently and he startles.

“Oh. Doc. Hi. I’ll have that report for you in a sec.” He begins to scramble but Magnus just rests a steadying arm on his hand.

“Henry. You’re exhausted.”

“No! No. I’m okay.”

“Yes you are. Look why don’t I babysit Alice this evening? Give you a chance to rest?”

“Are you sure? I mean—”

“Henry, I raised two children on my own.” She smiles fondly at him. “Though you were a tad older than Alice when we first met. I know what being a single parent is like. I wouldn’t have made it through if I didn’t let people help me, learn to take help when it’s offered. That’s the best advice I can give you as a parent.” Henry blinks a few times in shock, his sluggish brain trying desperately to play catch-up because Magnus never talks about motherhood. Especially not to him.

“Uhhh. Then yeah. Sure. Thank you.”

“Of course.” Then she grins widely, “and if she’s too much trouble I can always get Nikola to help.”

“Are you sure that’s the best idea?” Henry asks worriedly but Magnus is already on her way to the bassinet in the corner to collect Alice.  
  
******  
  
“Good evening my dear.” Nikola says as she enters her room. He’s stretched out on her sofa, apparently making quick work of a bottle of wine. She walks over to him and gives him a suitably disparaging look.

“I don’t exactly remember whereabouts I said it was acceptable for you to lie around my room getting drunk all the time. You do have your own room, you know.”

“Yes but then you would have to go all the way down the hall each time you yearned for my loving caresses. This is much more convenient.”

“For you I’m sure.”

“Not to mention,” and with this he sits up straight “I don’t get drunk. Vampire, remember?”

“How could I forget?” She replies. Nikola’s grin widens and she realises he’s staring at the place on her collarbone where he had left a particularly pronounced mark the night before. It’s covered now by her shirt—and she’s running out of high collared shirts to wear—but they both know it’s there. “That is not what I meant.” She admonishes.

“Of course not.” But the glint hasn’t left his eyes. 

“Either way, you need to keep your hands to yourself tonight.”

“Oh?”

“We’re babysitting.”

“Helen I don’t think that’s the best idea. Me and babies?”

“It will be fine, I’m sure. Now come along. I left Will in the nursery with Alice and we’re going to go and relieve him of child-minding duty.” She moves to leave the room and can hear him getting to his feet behind him. “And leave the wine!” She calls.

“Fine, fine.” He catches up with her in the hall. “But I’ll have you know, I am not changing any diapers.”  
  
*******  
  
They’re in the brightly coloured nursery. Helen has baby Alice in her arms and is cooing to her softly. Nikola, doubtless well aware that if he wants any sex in the coming week he'd better behave, is being dutiful. Not much more than dutiful, but he is sitting in the rocker watching her move about with the baby and he’s not even complaining. 

“I just don’t get what people love about babies, Helen. They can’t talk, they can’t take care of themselves, hell she can’t move on her own. What’s the big deal?”

“They’re cute, Nikola. And it’s kind of amazing. Everything is new to infants. Look at her. Even her own toes are a discovery. Babies are a clean slate. No prejudices, no biases, just waiting to soak in the information of the world around them. Of all people I would have thought you could appreciate that.”

“Hmmmmm,” he considers the idea, she can see him rolling it around in his mind as he would a fine bordeaux against his tastebuds. Just then her phone vibrates in her pocket. 

“Hello?”

“Uhhh Magnus. It’s Will. Look I know you’re busy with Alice, but there’s a problem with the Craetals.”

“What is it?”

“Uhhh I don’t know? Two of them just began fighting and I can’t tell why.”

“Very well. I’ll be down in a moment.” She hangs up and turns to Nikola.

“There’s a problem with some of the abnormals. Will needs my help. Can I trust you with Alice?”

“You’re leaving me alone with the baby? What do I do?”

“Nikola she’s a baby not a scientific conundrum. Interact with her. Hold if she cries. Talk to her!” She lays the sleepy bundle of baby down in the crib and then she’s dashing out the door.  
  
*****  
  
Helen walks back into the room to find Nikola standing by the crib talking to Alice.

“I am just saying that Edison was a lying, cheating scumbag and I am the true genius here.”

“Nikola really” Helen admonishes with a smile.

“Oh no, she knows what I’m saying. don’t you?” The baby gurgles happily. “Yes. Exactly!” She walks over to stand beside him and peer down at the adorable little creature inside. "Alls well in Abnormalville?" he asks.

“Oh yes. One of the Craetals went into heat and the other two were fighting over him.”

“Sounds exciting.”

“Oh, always.” They drift into silence, watching Alice together. “You know Nikola, you can actually pick her up if you want to.” After a few moments of hesitation, he gingerly reaches into the crib and picks Alice up, awkwardly placing her in his arms.

“No not like that” Helen fixes his hold on her, “you want to support the head like so.” Nikola follows her direction and before long he’s gently cradling the baby in his arms, swaying gently to and fro. Helen can’t help but stare at the picture in front of her. Nikola, resplendent as ever in a gorgeous 3-piece navy suit, blue shirt, and silver tie, staring at the tiny blanket-wrapped baby in his arms with a look of intense confusion and concentration. Nikola’s eclectic proposal of a few months earlier weighs heavily in the back of her mind, though it feels like an age since he told her they could “make a go” of this and now she stares at him as she contemplates it. Does she really want to commit, truly and 100% to this infuriating, nosy, irresponsible, adorable, charming man? Forever is a very long time. She turns the question over in her mind as she soaks in the beautiful domesticity of the sight in front of her.

“Enjoying the view?” Nikola asks, breaking her out of her reverie.

“What’s not to enjoy?” she replies and takes a few steps forward to join him, kissing him lightly on the lips before she turns her focus to the babe in his arms.

“You know, they’re actually quite fascinating.”

“What? Babies?”

“Yes. What say we give Wolf Baby back to Wolf Boy and go try to make one of our own?” Those are words she can safely say she never expected to hear from the mouth of Nikola Tesla.

“Nikola, I realise anatomy was never your focus, but I’m not exactly capable of—”

“Oh. I know that, Helen. Genius, remember?” He grins at her salaciously. “All I’m saying is we could try.”

“Ahhhh.”

“Yes. And if at first you don’t succeed...”

“Try, try again?”

“Oi vey.”


	14. When you're happy like a fool let it take you over

“Geez. Thanks.” Henry murmurs gently as Alice pukes up her latest meal all over him. Grabbing some cloths he gently wipes at her mouth and settles her in the crook of his left arm as he haphazardly wipes the vomit off his shirt. “You’re not feeling too hot, eh? Let’s go see the doc. I bet she can help you out.” Alice squirms and begins to wail. “Ooof yeah I know baby girl.” He tucks her close against her chest as he walks through the darkened halls of the sanctuary. Getting up to Magnus’ room, he knocks on the door gently. Henry isn’t surprised, per se, when Tesla answers the door, but he’s tired and more than a little cranky and he does not need the vamp’s less than stellar wit right now.

“Heinrich. How may I be of service?”

“I need to talk to Magnus.” Tesla doesn’t move and Henry sighs. “It’s Alice. I think she’s sick.”

“That would explain the screeching,” Tesla observes with a wince and Henry doesn’t even have it in him to comment on the obvious nature of that statement. Tesla retreats into the room and a few seconds later Magnus appears at the door.

“Henry?”

“Doc. Sorry to wake you. But Alice just threw up, and she’s been screaming a lot and I’m worried...”

“Has she had any diarrhea?”

“Umm. No.”

Magnus examines the baby closely and Henry stands by anxiously, rocking back and forth on his feet and wringing his hands.

“I’m going to take some blood, and do a few tests, okay? Why don’t you have a seat?” Henry shakes his head.

“Doc. What if I can’t do this? What if I’m not cut out to be a dad? I mean Alice is only 2 months old and already she’s sick.” Magnus sighs gently and turns to him, cradling his baby in her arms.

“Henry, every single parent in the world asks that question. It’s perfectly natural to feel that way. But you are a great Dad. You love your daughter and you would do anything for her and the fact that you woke me up at 3am to check on her tells me that you are going to be an absolutely amazing parent. Okay?” Henry nods a bit bashfully because he has never received a pep talk like that from Magnus. He’s used to a quick ‘well-done Henry’ that says everything it needs to. “Here” she says, handing Alice back to him. “I’m going to give you a solution that should help her sleep and then maybe we can all get some rest?”

*****

“Hey.” Will walks into Henry’s lab with some trepidation.

“Oh, hey Will.”

“Is Alice feeling better?”

“Yeah. She had rotavirus. We kept her hydrated and it looks like she’s feeling a lot better.”

“Good. Good. I’m glad.” Will takes a deep breath and powers on with what he came to say. “Look, I know you’re angry at me. And I can’t really say I get why but I’m sorry if what I did with Declan, or my bisexuality, or anything makes you uncomfortable. We don’t have to talk about it. And I just wanted to say that if you need any help with Alice, I’m here for you.” Henry just kind of stares at him for a few seconds and Will begins to reconsider how good of an idea this was. 

“Will I’m not angry at you cause you’re gay, or bi, or whatever. That’s not my problem.” 

“It’s not?”

“No!” Henry wavers a bit on the spot and then, suddenly, he’s got his hands on either side of Will’s face and he’s pressing his lips against Will’s in a firm kiss and Will’s brain just stops. He can’t process what’s happening, can’t even move a muscle to respond before Henry’s moved back and is standing in front of him looking awkward as all hell. He opens his mouth as though he’s about to say something but suddenly a tinny wail erupts through the room. The baby monitor. 

“I’ve gotta go” Henry says quickly and then dashes out, leaving Will standing completely stationary, brain desperately trying to grasp what the fuck just happened.

*****

When Henry finally makes it back to his lab, Alice in tow, Will is gone. He curses mentally and places Alice in the crib near his computer and sits down to attack the backlog of work that has piled up since her birth. The parenting books he’s read have all told him that he’s supposed to narrate to her, keep up a stream of one-sided conversation that’s good for cognitive and speech development. He sighs, this always makes him feel ridiculous.

“Now Daddy is going through this sector of code. Daddy got a report that it’s been malfunctioning and so Daddy has to look through pages and pages of tiny little numbers and letters and figure out where he forgot a semi-colon. This is Daddy’s least favourite part of coding but somebody has to do it and apparently Nikola didn’t feel like it.”

*****

Will’s been hiding out in his study. Not hiding out, he corrects his mind. Getting some very important reports done. But he’s been reading the same line of this budget report for easily the past 20 minutes and still all he can think about is Henry kissing him. His lips were surprisingly soft. And it just felt so perfect. Shit. Somewhere along the way this had become so much more than a harmless crush on his straight best friend. Who apparently isn’t straight. Or something.

“Shit.” He bangs his head against the table a few times.

It’s not very helpful.

He sighs. He squares his shoulders. He can do this.

*******

Will walks into Henry’s lab and looks around. Henry is at his computer, typing away furiously and keeping up a constant stream of conversation. 

“Daddy found the missing piece of code! That’s exciting because Daddy has been working on this sector for a few hours now. Sometimes Daddy hates coding. Do you hate coding?” He turns to his daughter and picks her up. “Nahhhhhh. You’re going to love coding baby girl! Oh yeah! You’re gonna be the best coder in the world!” Fuck if that’s not the cutest thing in the world, Will doesn’t know what is.

“Ahem,” he clears his throat and Henry spins around.

“Ahh. Will. Hi.”

“Hi.”

“I, uhhh, didn’t see you there.”

“No, of course not. You were, uhhh, busy. With coding and stuff.” Henry blushes.

“How much did you hear? It’s uhhhh. It’s good for her cognitive development to talk to her like that.” Will smiles.

“For sure.”

“Uhhhh. Look. About earlier. I’m... I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? Did you.” He takes a deep breath. “Do you regret it?”

“What? No. I just... I figured you...” Will walks forward and takes Alice out of Henry’s arms. 

“You need to go back in your bassinet, baby girl. Because Will’s gonna kiss your Daddy and as cute as you are, Will really doesn’t want you getting in the middle of that.” 

*******

Helen is holding the beautiful little girl in her arms. She feels someone come up behind her, relaxing when she recognizes Nikola’s familiar scent; his arms wrapping around her waist and his head coming to rest on her chin.

“I was wondering where you snuck off to.”

“I was passing by the nursery when I heard her cry. Seeing as Henry and Will are both sleeping I figured I would retrieve her before she could wake them up.”

“Henry and Will?” He clarifies. “As in...”

“Apparently.”

“Huh. Well done Dr. Expendable.” Alice's cries die down and she snuggles deeper into Helen’s arms.

“She is beautiful, isn’t she?” she says in a gentle murmur. Nikola drops a tender kiss on her shoulder and replies,

“She is. Congratulations, Grandma.” She cranes her neck around to give him a slightly incredulous look.

“Grandma?”

“Well, you did practically raise the boy. I’d say it’s fitting” She considers that, then nods and smiles back down at the tiny bundle in her arms even more proudly than she had before, if that were possible.

“Well then” she says. “Congratulations to you too, Grandpa.” It takes a few seconds for the implications to set in and then it’s his turn to look shocked.

“Re- really?” 

“Mmmmhmmmm.” She kisses him tenderly before settling back into the comforting circle of his arms. He pulls her closer, bringing one hand up to gently stroke baby Alice’s blanket-covered tummy.

“You are going to be the smartest, most spoiled little wolf baby in the whole world. And maybe if your grandparents are quick about it, we can keep you from being too influenced by your fathers.”


End file.
